13 Residents/Homeowners met half way down Wall Street on Sunday at 12pm to discuss and make a final decision on "Option 3" as proposed by Frank at the last meeting.
Of the 10 eligable households, 8 were in agreement with Frank's suggestion that we should all run the sewage system via an elected committee and make use of all of our skills. Unfortunately despite this landslide majority, the only two households that disagreed were Phil and Andy King, who between themselves had decided after the last meeting much to our dismay took things into their own hands and took control. Despite the fact that the last vote was not unanimous (see previous post).
We discussed Franks proposal, and there was a landslide majority - that we would all manage the pump - questions were asked about why people who don't reside have a key - Frank's wife made a very good point about why the key had been issued to Andy and his father in-law, and who had the right to make such a decision for all of us. This seemed to polarise attitudes for all residents and the meeting then seemed to turn on the current keyholders. At the end of the discussion we said that as it was quite clear that opinions had changed that we should take control asap - we then asked who had the key now, Andy King answered - the group then informed him that Andy H & Derek will need the keys immediately so we can examine the condition of the pump equipment and start making our analysis of the situation.
They stated to everyone that they would not hand over the keys to the new majority, citing that the owners of the pump room would not agree with it. Regrettably Andy left the proceedings, followed 20 minutes later by Phil, as things were clearly not going the way they had hoped.
The rest of us, the majority of 8 households - then formally proposed and voted on a residents comittee who would be formally in charge of pump management, and be accountable to all residents - first a treasurer, Puck (Mark Burgess) and Frank Bollu as chairman of the residents committee.
We stated that our first mission is to get the padlock removed so the elected comittee can run the sewage system in the way the majority of residents want it to be handled.
Talks are currently going on to this end with Puck and Andy King.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Friday 27 August 2010
Clacton-Air-Show
Flyovers have been few and far between for the Clacton-Air-Show - I filmed this earlier today....
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Bad smell recently
Anyone else notice the bad smell coming from the sea direction over the weekend? It smelled like sewage, wind direction was from the South, so it must have been coming from somewhere in the vicinity of Mersea Island. Ironically today, the wind is blowing from inland, across the LeeWick sewage farm and we can't smell anything - very bizzarre!
UPDATE: Fri 27th August.
The smell is back... it seems to be whenever we have no wind - the question now is where is the smell coming from, Wall Street's drains, the sewage unit, or Lee-Wick lane sewage depot - or possibly even somewhere on Beach Road... Hopefully someone with a good sense of smell can track it down!
UPDATE: Fri 27th August.
The smell is back... it seems to be whenever we have no wind - the question now is where is the smell coming from, Wall Street's drains, the sewage unit, or Lee-Wick lane sewage depot - or possibly even somewhere on Beach Road... Hopefully someone with a good sense of smell can track it down!
Monday 23 August 2010
Water Pipe - Self Laying Rules
I've found this document that appears to go through the regulations that we need to follow if we are going to lay the new water supply pipe ourselves. Its a pretty involved document, and I'll be getting my head around it this week between my 9-6 work and house building committments.
http://www.deevalleywater.co.uk/article_files/90/english/Self_Lay_Policy.PDF
We need to understand all the technical details in this document whatever we do.
Here's Anglian Water's version of the same thing - all based on British Standards all water companies adhere to:
http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/_assets/media/Guidance-notes-for-self-lay-water-mains-services.pdf
Which reminds me - I'm still trying to find a phone number for "Bond's" - I've looked online and can't find anything - if nobody knows the number, I do have a vague idea where they are now, so if by the end of the week I can't find a phone number I'll go into the village and knock on a few doors until I find them!
http://www.deevalleywater.co.uk/article_files/90/english/Self_Lay_Policy.PDF
We need to understand all the technical details in this document whatever we do.
Here's Anglian Water's version of the same thing - all based on British Standards all water companies adhere to:
http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/_assets/media/Guidance-notes-for-self-lay-water-mains-services.pdf
Which reminds me - I'm still trying to find a phone number for "Bond's" - I've looked online and can't find anything - if nobody knows the number, I do have a vague idea where they are now, so if by the end of the week I can't find a phone number I'll go into the village and knock on a few doors until I find them!
Sunday 22 August 2010
Wall Street Sewage Meeting 2 - second vote for "Option 3"
Having given the situation a lot of thought, I'm struggling to maintain a positive attitude due to events after our last meeting. I'm going to put my suspicions aside (I wish other people would) - disregard my last post and the "past" - I really want us to sort this out.
I can see why people might think that it wasn't a clear majority, yet the previous controllers of the system took it upon themselves to retain the key and do things their way citing a false vote result in their favour.
It wasn't a clear majority - the third option of "everyone" being in charge was a solution to the stalemate on the last vote as our last best hope. I can see this might have annoyed people - as they weren't asked - this 3rd option wasn't really voted on by EVERYONE, so its really important now that we do so. It seemed the best solution to those who remained at the meeting till the end.
To be completely fair - we now need to have a second vote now to be truly democratic to give everyone a proper chance via a secret ballot to vote on Frank's suggestion.
Additionally this meeting should also put in place a proper residents committee with fully voted representatives. This will also give us more political clout with the authorities in the future, and is something I'm sure Smith's Farms will agree with, as they always cite "what everyone wants" - during conversations - although the reality is this "everyone" was not in the past a proper majority. Additionally I have said to Phillip Smith on many occasions that we should have a proper residents committee.
A proper committee will help us sort things out democratically and give everyone a say.
Why this is very important to our small community:
The sewage issue is a pilot scheme for our bigger issues that we face - the water supply needs unity - if we can't come to a fair outcome, what chance do we have for our future infrastructure - leaving a very real possibility that we could be left high and dry if things deteriorate without residents taking action TOGETHER.
I can see why people might think that it wasn't a clear majority, yet the previous controllers of the system took it upon themselves to retain the key and do things their way citing a false vote result in their favour.
It wasn't a clear majority - the third option of "everyone" being in charge was a solution to the stalemate on the last vote as our last best hope. I can see this might have annoyed people - as they weren't asked - this 3rd option wasn't really voted on by EVERYONE, so its really important now that we do so. It seemed the best solution to those who remained at the meeting till the end.
To be completely fair - we now need to have a second vote now to be truly democratic to give everyone a proper chance via a secret ballot to vote on Frank's suggestion.
Additionally this meeting should also put in place a proper residents committee with fully voted representatives. This will also give us more political clout with the authorities in the future, and is something I'm sure Smith's Farms will agree with, as they always cite "what everyone wants" - during conversations - although the reality is this "everyone" was not in the past a proper majority. Additionally I have said to Phillip Smith on many occasions that we should have a proper residents committee.
A proper committee will help us sort things out democratically and give everyone a say.
Why this is very important to our small community:
The sewage issue is a pilot scheme for our bigger issues that we face - the water supply needs unity - if we can't come to a fair outcome, what chance do we have for our future infrastructure - leaving a very real possibility that we could be left high and dry if things deteriorate without residents taking action TOGETHER.
Friday 20 August 2010
Who exactly was running the pump ?
I realised today I'd been lied to for a whole year about who was actually ultimately responsible for the bills on the Sewage.
The person I thought was doing it was really just the money collector. I feel really betrayed after all the conversations I had with certain individuals - for an entire year!
This makes me think even more that we can't go on having people in charge of the system who can't "come clean" on all the accounts or be honest with people when in discussions, casual or otherwise - I've decided from my own perspective - they will need to now substantiate their sums by proving everything in relation to bills, maintenance and expenditure.
I'm not giving money to anyone I can't trust without a paper trail to prove it from now. It sounds like I've been paying through the nose for mistakes made by the pump management before I moved into the road - It would seem that my contributions have footed the bill for the pump bought a couple of years ago.
It makes the arguments over £40 almost 8 years ago seem quite trivial in comparison.
As I keep saying we'd pay the same amount for commercial sewage service in a town. (approx £150 p.a. - Last year's bill for sewage for Lee-Over-Sands Wall Street residents was approx £140 for a year in total).
Whatever happens - Given this realization - I'd advise everyone in the street to demand an itemised bill before paying anything to anyone - whoever is in charge - it all needs to be transparently accountable... no more slips of paper with only "You owe £55 this period" and no explaination of why, or copies of bills paid during that period.
This is a key point that was our main issue - more transparency. Whatever happens - we need accountability - its only fair to all residents who contribute.
The person I thought was doing it was really just the money collector. I feel really betrayed after all the conversations I had with certain individuals - for an entire year!
This makes me think even more that we can't go on having people in charge of the system who can't "come clean" on all the accounts or be honest with people when in discussions, casual or otherwise - I've decided from my own perspective - they will need to now substantiate their sums by proving everything in relation to bills, maintenance and expenditure.
I'm not giving money to anyone I can't trust without a paper trail to prove it from now. It sounds like I've been paying through the nose for mistakes made by the pump management before I moved into the road - It would seem that my contributions have footed the bill for the pump bought a couple of years ago.
It makes the arguments over £40 almost 8 years ago seem quite trivial in comparison.
As I keep saying we'd pay the same amount for commercial sewage service in a town. (approx £150 p.a. - Last year's bill for sewage for Lee-Over-Sands Wall Street residents was approx £140 for a year in total).
Whatever happens - Given this realization - I'd advise everyone in the street to demand an itemised bill before paying anything to anyone - whoever is in charge - it all needs to be transparently accountable... no more slips of paper with only "You owe £55 this period" and no explaination of why, or copies of bills paid during that period.
This is a key point that was our main issue - more transparency. Whatever happens - we need accountability - its only fair to all residents who contribute.
Thursday 19 August 2010
Sewage Shed Light Left On
Since Carol got an electricity company out last week - the sewage shed light has been left on - running up our bill. I've asked three people so far to give me the key or go switch it off - no luck, always excuses, "someone else has it etc"
The story goes that John had the key. When I asked John today for the key, his son-in-law has it. And today, he didn't arrive.
Is it really wise for someone who doesn't live here yet to have the key for emergencies - Utterly Daft.
I think we all know whats really going on here. Puck needs a meter reading to sort out the billing on the new tariff. I need to go in to start measuring current on the pump and monitoring flow, and start planning the switching work to lower the bills.
What worries me more is that the pump might have been left running as well as the light being left on - you can imagine the bill we'll have if its been running for 24hrs non stop for a week.
Reluctantly I've spoken today to Phillip Smith, who is the actual owner of the shed about removing the padlock with his permission - he will be getting back to me later today.
The story goes that John had the key. When I asked John today for the key, his son-in-law has it. And today, he didn't arrive.
Is it really wise for someone who doesn't live here yet to have the key for emergencies - Utterly Daft.
I think we all know whats really going on here. Puck needs a meter reading to sort out the billing on the new tariff. I need to go in to start measuring current on the pump and monitoring flow, and start planning the switching work to lower the bills.
What worries me more is that the pump might have been left running as well as the light being left on - you can imagine the bill we'll have if its been running for 24hrs non stop for a week.
Reluctantly I've spoken today to Phillip Smith, who is the actual owner of the shed about removing the padlock with his permission - he will be getting back to me later today.
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Sewage Unit decision made
Just to be clear, for those people who didn't see the update on the end of the blog entry about the Sewage unit. This is a seperate entry that explains the outcome of the meeting a bit more thoroughly for those people who didn't see the updated bits.
This is what happened for the benefit of those residents who didn't stay until the end.
If you're unhappy with this, you should have stayed until the end!
Voting was as follows:
(It was decided that non attendees would not be counted - one vote per occupied household)
Votes for: Robbie, Derek, Andy Haynes
Votes against: Carol, Theresa, Andy King
Deciding votes were then up to Puck and Frank's choices.
Puck after much deliberation for half an hour decided to vote against our proposal which resulted in:
This is what happened for the benefit of those residents who didn't stay until the end.
If you're unhappy with this, you should have stayed until the end!
Voting was as follows:
(It was decided that non attendees would not be counted - one vote per occupied household)
Votes for: Robbie, Derek, Andy Haynes
Votes against: Carol, Theresa, Andy King
Deciding votes were then up to Puck and Frank's choices.
Puck after much deliberation for half an hour decided to vote against our proposal which resulted in:
Votes for: Robbie, Derek, Andy Haynes
Votes against: Carol, Theresa, Andy King, Puck
This left a Final Deciding casting vote which would result in either a stalemate or a vote of 5 to 3 to keep it "as it was", which was all down to Frank's final vote.
Frank did not want to make a choice, as he could see the merits of both situations - and proposed a third scenario to the remaining attendees as a new option to break the stalemate - suggesting that we should all pool our knowledge and skills between us - rather than having 2 seperate camps, which is a very weak position to be in - as it would have ended up with either the "Technical people", and "non-technical" people managing it. Saying it was not a sensible situation to end up with - we should be united so the skills we have can contribute end up helping reduce bills - so everyone who wants to help physically and is able bodied. practical and technically minded instead should be involved and helping us make decisions. Andy, Puck and I agreed with Frank's suggestion, as we are really not that "precious" about controlling it in isolation anyway - we'd prefer more people were involved generally.
How it will work
Basically we will have a "sewage comittee" - - but this time rather than being 3 of us - have more people to help decide what to do -
e.g. Derek, Puck, Andy H, Andy King, Frank
membership of the committee is only conditional on two factors:
1) only those that agree to contribute
2) able to help physically with lifting, are able bodied - as well as being practical and technically minded.
This will help us guide decision making in the best possible way for everyone's benefit.
- Andy H and I will start by monitoring and measuring pump data for several months, which will require us to go in and take measurements and readings initially on a periodic basis - could be every day or every week - we haven't planned this yet. Obviously we're going to need the key to do this. We will not do anything to change existing equipment without having the relevant data and have consulted on our findings with the rest of the comittee and voted - abiding with a majority decision for any changes in equipment only via the committee.
- The £40 magic figure Andy and I proposed is something that now be dropped - instead we as a committee will do our best to do anything we can to reduce the bills to a sensible amount each year.
- Puck will be doing whatever he can to reduce billing and tariffs with the electricity company.
- Billing at year end in arreas will also not happen now it will be on a per quarter basis in arreas as before.
Hope that explains things better!
Monday 2 August 2010
Wall Street Sewage maintenance
Andy and myself have proposed that we take over maintenance and running of the Wall Street sewage system, as maintenance costs have been increasing leading to a cost per household of £125 this year, which is what we would be charged by a commercial water company for waste disposal in a suburban setting.
Andy has his reasons for doing this which we all know about - He's happy to contribute towards this cost from now on the condition that he and I take over the system.
My own reasons are mainly to reduce the cost and make best use of our technical knowledge and experience rather than relying on a third party company.
With these facts in mind we collectively drafted a letter to all Wall Street residents for signed approval - if we get a majority result, we will take over management of it.
UPDATE: 10th August 2010
Andy and I had a meeting with Puck (Mark) today to try and make some sense of the percieved ignorant nonsensical negativity towards our proposals, which is not helping matters and so we made positive, constructive suggestions as to how we can get a consensus of opinion and actually start sorting this out between us instead of lining the pockets of the 3rd party pump management company.
Our suggestion:
If certain individuals can't trust me just because of an irrational fear of association, then the obvious solution is to manage it collectively by committee - so it seemed sensible to us that it should be me, Andy & Puck organising this. Simple. If after a year the three of us haven't reduced running costs, then someone else should step in and attempt to do better.
My Personal Opinion
I don't like being dictated to, especially if it involves uneccessary expense. We have the skills to do this ourselves collectively. I must admit, I'm tempted to start investigating getting my own seperate system if this nonsense doesn't stop soon, which could mean another contributor dropping out = which will mean everyone else will end up with even higher bills, and I certainly won't be lending my own electrical engineering expertise to helping a system I no longer subscribe to if our proposal gets objected.
UPDATE:
As all the letters, discussions and knocking on doors and seperate discussions over the last few days are taking up a lot of time and becoming stressful - unfortunately despite Puck's valiant attempts, it really isn't getting us anywhere - so I suggested and proposed we have a meeting about sewage so hopefully we can move forwards with this with all residents on Saturday 14th August 2010 at 1pm.
CONCLUSION:
After a residents meeting, which got quite heated at times, Some interesting points, and disappointingly some soap-box ranting that kicked off the meeting and expected lack of cooperation from negative residents because of past troubles, we finally managed to proceed and keep the meeting in a positive.
Joe raised the issue of public liability insurance, for example if someone is injured while working in the sewage shed. Personally I think the litigation culture is something we can do without - If I injure myself I certainly won't be suing the other residents for compensation or whoever did the work badly. Despite my opinions, its a relevant point, although I dismissed it at the time - the thing to consider though is insurance puts up costs.
Andy King also raised the issue about insurance cover, e.g. if the system fails. This made us wonder about the current maintenance contract. Usually sewage damage is covered by buildings insurance, although this is something we should investigate to see how we stand if there is any negligence either intentionally or unintentionally.
The rest of the residents were understanding and reasonable as everyone saw how important this is to us as a community.
Voting was split down the middle, with equal amounts of households in favour of our proposal until the final two people, who had trouble deciding, it came down to one person's decision. Finally after 2 hours it was decided by the remaining people at the meeting with the deciding votes that we should all get involved as a third option - no more "2 camps" and division in the community - instead we should all get involved.
MY OPINION:
All in all a good outcome. At least everyone attended - which was good - despite the problems - good constructive stuff, despite how stressful it all was. I am a bit worried that things could get disorganised due to too many people being involved in the decision making process - that said I do believe we're all better moving together as a strong unit. So lets hope it all goes well.
Andy has his reasons for doing this which we all know about - He's happy to contribute towards this cost from now on the condition that he and I take over the system.
My own reasons are mainly to reduce the cost and make best use of our technical knowledge and experience rather than relying on a third party company.
With these facts in mind we collectively drafted a letter to all Wall Street residents for signed approval - if we get a majority result, we will take over management of it.
UPDATE: 10th August 2010
Andy and I had a meeting with Puck (Mark) today to try and make some sense of the percieved ignorant nonsensical negativity towards our proposals, which is not helping matters and so we made positive, constructive suggestions as to how we can get a consensus of opinion and actually start sorting this out between us instead of lining the pockets of the 3rd party pump management company.
Our suggestion:
If certain individuals can't trust me just because of an irrational fear of association, then the obvious solution is to manage it collectively by committee - so it seemed sensible to us that it should be me, Andy & Puck organising this. Simple. If after a year the three of us haven't reduced running costs, then someone else should step in and attempt to do better.
My Personal Opinion
I don't like being dictated to, especially if it involves uneccessary expense. We have the skills to do this ourselves collectively. I must admit, I'm tempted to start investigating getting my own seperate system if this nonsense doesn't stop soon, which could mean another contributor dropping out = which will mean everyone else will end up with even higher bills, and I certainly won't be lending my own electrical engineering expertise to helping a system I no longer subscribe to if our proposal gets objected.
UPDATE:
As all the letters, discussions and knocking on doors and seperate discussions over the last few days are taking up a lot of time and becoming stressful - unfortunately despite Puck's valiant attempts, it really isn't getting us anywhere - so I suggested and proposed we have a meeting about sewage so hopefully we can move forwards with this with all residents on Saturday 14th August 2010 at 1pm.
CONCLUSION:
After a residents meeting, which got quite heated at times, Some interesting points, and disappointingly some soap-box ranting that kicked off the meeting and expected lack of cooperation from negative residents because of past troubles, we finally managed to proceed and keep the meeting in a positive.
Joe raised the issue of public liability insurance, for example if someone is injured while working in the sewage shed. Personally I think the litigation culture is something we can do without - If I injure myself I certainly won't be suing the other residents for compensation or whoever did the work badly. Despite my opinions, its a relevant point, although I dismissed it at the time - the thing to consider though is insurance puts up costs.
Andy King also raised the issue about insurance cover, e.g. if the system fails. This made us wonder about the current maintenance contract. Usually sewage damage is covered by buildings insurance, although this is something we should investigate to see how we stand if there is any negligence either intentionally or unintentionally.
The rest of the residents were understanding and reasonable as everyone saw how important this is to us as a community.
Voting was split down the middle, with equal amounts of households in favour of our proposal until the final two people, who had trouble deciding, it came down to one person's decision. Finally after 2 hours it was decided by the remaining people at the meeting with the deciding votes that we should all get involved as a third option - no more "2 camps" and division in the community - instead we should all get involved.
MY OPINION:
All in all a good outcome. At least everyone attended - which was good - despite the problems - good constructive stuff, despite how stressful it all was. I am a bit worried that things could get disorganised due to too many people being involved in the decision making process - that said I do believe we're all better moving together as a strong unit. So lets hope it all goes well.
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