Meeting at our house on 22nd August, 2011 with Simon Brown, M.D. Taylor Wimpey, Michael Leary Sales Director, Cyril Liddy, David McCaskey and Maggie Bernstein

We asked a number of questions and these are Simon Brown’s answers that Maggie noted down more or less in order:-

    * When T.W. purchased the shipyard site, the lorry route for materials and plant delivery was a ‘given’

    * They had no knowledge of a ‘marsh road’ being used by the Environmental Agency when the barrier was built. I suggested they find out how that was done.

    * They had not investigated using the river for supplies to be brought in by barge having been told that that was not legally possible.

    * Therefore there was no other route available. Down Bowes Rd, Valley Rd and Anglesey Rd is the route.

    * T.W. did offer to tarmac the edge of Anglesey Rd at the top of Queens Rd but the Anglesey Rd residents didn’t want that to happen.

    * The soil removal which involved 80 lorries a day for six weeks was not strictly ‘contaminated’ but rather had been tested and found ‘unsuitable’ for gardens. Also though Trevor Mills (Site Manager) blamed its presence on Bryants, T.W. and Bryants are the same company.

    * When finished T.W. will have built 94 homes none of which have eco-friendly features.

    * 2 homes are social housing.

    * 30 homes are on the flood plain and have skirting boards painted on both sides, waist high electrical sockets and flood protective doors.

    * House building is dependent on sales. Last year sales picked up. There are 30 houses still to be built and that will probably mean a further 6 months of large lorries such as Brett concrete.

    * The lorry drivers are told when to deliver, that is, after 8am and not after 5pm and to be aware that they are driving through private housing and to be respectful towards those on the route.

    * Once houses are complete there will still be commercial buildings to complete but these are still to be agreed.

 We asked a number of further questions and made some requests and these are Simon Brown’s and Michael Leary’s answers: -

 The whole project will take about another year to 18months to be fully completed.

    * They will put the water dowser to work on dry days to keep the dust down.

    * They do have a record of all deliveries to the site but can’t say what size the lorries recorded are.

    * They will hold a meeting at the Yacht Club at their expense for not more than 6 lorry route residents and some members of Wivenhoe Town Council so that people can express their concerns, complaints etc.

    * They will deliver a newsletter in the next three weeks to all residents on the lorry route to tell them what is happening and so on.

    * They will provide us with a map of the site.

    * They will reiterate with their suppliers the rules governing using our roads.

    * They will repair roads and pavements –potholes, cracks and crushing.

    * They will investigate re-instating the Public Footpath that used to run from just past the black shiplap house (at the beginning of the old shipyard just past the end of Sun Lane) off to the left. It ran round the boundary of the yard and ended up just where the Yacht Club is now.

We spent about an hour and a half talking to them. Obviously we need to ask people on the three roads and any others that the lorries use to think about asking someone to represent them at the meeting at the Yacht Club.

Though Simon Brown and Michael Leary did want Town Councillors to attend that meeting, all of us, Cyril, David and myself felt that those suffering the problems should outnumber Town Councillors.

We would be interested to hear what you all think about  all of the above.