Residents Meeting on Beach Road about the water supply

Friday evening (2nd of June 6.00pm) seems to be favourite for most permanent residents of Lee-Over-Sands to meet with the landowner re the water supply announcement - We've contacted as many people as possible about this - although its been hard to get contact details for anyone in Beach Road.

I'll be confirming the time and meeting date on this Blog entry in due course after I phone Phillip tomorrow to see if its convenient with him (Thursday June 1st 2010)

UPDATE: 6.30pm is the new time for this - Meet near Frank's house and the road sign on Wall Street I've mentioned this on the main posting, Phillip confirmed today he would be attending tonight.

UPDATE: The meeting went very well, with 16 residents attending, it went amicably, no arguments and most residents certainly took Phillip's words seriously and understood the situation plainly - which was very well outlined. Some residents (myself included) will organise ourselves into action on this matter and make sure everyone stays informed. Basically Smiths Farms informed us that the pipe was getting very old and may not be servicable for much longer, and that it might be ok for another 10 years, or not - and that we should investigate alternate supply options for the eventual time for when maintenance of the supply pipe is deemed no longer viable.

Beach Road Maintenance update Tuesday 22nd June 2010

I decided to put an hour of work into the road this evening after I finished my day job - and tackled some of the lumpy hardcore that was donated on Sunday. Most of the garage brickwork that was provided and roughly put down was ok, but just not quite fitting the dips right - as you can see from the picture.

So it just needed a little care and attention from someone like me to put right! - My obsessive compulsive nature enjoyed repositioning the bricks and half-bricks to fill holes - rather like doing a rough 3D jigsaw puzzle. I've found this work with brick hardcore is best done with a wheelbarrow and heavy duty gloves - literally on your hands and knees and selecting the right bricks to fit the relevant shaped holes. The shovel is only any good for loose smaller material.

I got through half of the rough piles, levelling it pretty well - the remaining amount up near the sewage farm still needs doing though (perhaps tomorrow night!)

Water Supply - The future...

During our meeting with Phillip Smith on Sunday he told us that as a community we should consider putting in place alternative solutions to the water supply, which at the moment is free of charge from Smith's Farms, presumably something to do with the Deed Covenants on the Lee-Over-Sands properties when originally sold from the landowner seems to imply that water would always be provided.


Phillip's concern is that if there are any problems with the supply pipe in the future - being originally laid in the 1930s it uses imperial fittings, so it will be hard to fix if sections need replacing as everything is now metric.


He also told me that the Smiths advise residents not to use the water for drinking. This surprised me, as I had no idea apart from some nagging doubts in my mind obviously wondering how clean the water is - but it wasn't something that was flagged during the conveyancing of my house purchase in Wall Street!


I've been drinking the water for a year now!


I've studied the water closely many times, it looked fine, and Phillip even admitted that they drink it too, so its probably ok!


So this is another potential issue for Lee-Over-Sands to consider for the future, and will be on the agenda when we eventually have residents committee meetings.


UPDATE: 25th of June 2010 15:00
I've just been looking into alternative supply options for the community - we have two options - Viola Water East and Anglian Water.


Viola (Tel: 0845 148 9288) were already aware when I called them that Smith's Farms supplied water to our community, which probably means they are the supplier for the farm.
Both companies said the same - Anglian's response was identical - I spoke to Eileen at the Developer Services in Lincoln (Tel: 08456 066 087)


The situation is this, either we raise an group application for a connection to the public water supply or seperate ones. The downside with the mass application method is someone (an individual would need to be billed singularly for the supply connection - e.g. residents committee via a nominated person).

Given that its pretty difficult getting everyone involved en-masse especially the money side of things, individual applications would seem to be the way to go with this.


Viola Water East will be sending out 15 forms to me - and you can download and print a form from here on the Anglian Water website. New_or_replacement_water_connection_application_form

I'd advise we find out which company will be cheaper in terms of provisioning quotes - which of course is the next step after we gather all the forms from all residents.


We have other options of course - all of which we should discuss as soon as we can get everyone together to discuss our options. Theresa and I are currently trying to find a mutually agreeable time for all residents on both Wall Street and Beach Road so we can all meet with the landowners where they will outline their intentions to us as a group.

Some photos taken by Nina Pope..

I spotted these pictures of Lee-Over-Sands today in an automated Google Alert taken by Nina Pope of our small community... http://www.flickr.com/photos/nina_pope/4714903654/in/photostream/

Beach Road Maintenance update Sunday 20th June 2010

Andy and I spent a whole day on the road today, we had a lot of positive comments from passers by, it seems we only have two homes who object to it, after discussion one of these people feared the road could become "too good" - but I talked sense into that person. The other home in Wall Street who objects has her opinions - but I placated her and made it quite clear that we are just making the road passable again for normal vehicles, and that whatever her views they should not adversely affect the rest of us - as that would be very selfish, especially making poor Carol have to sell her recently purchased new Ford Ka due to grounding!

Suprisingly, later on Guy Smith happened to pass us by without stopping as we were actually working on the track levelling it - Not long after I'm glad to report that his brother - Phillip Smith came down to chat to us. Initially he said "don't you think you should have asked the owner first..." to which I said... we did... several times and had our letters delivered by recorded delivery totally ignored.

We asked Phillip if he objected to the work, to which Phillip said he had no objections, and was more worried that collectively other residents did not want the work done. Most of the issues here are between Andy and the Smiths, who ironically are distant relatives, so I was suprised to hear that my previous suggestions for myself to act as go-between had not been fed back to the Smiths, so I asked Phillip and Guy to liase with me in future as I'm quite reasonable and open to discussion and plain actions.

The Smith's opinions for "what residents want" of course could be deemed theoretically as not being a real collective opinion - the reality of this of course is that those residents who dissent are not impartial in their views due to their relationships with Smiths farm either by use of land or employment - which is obvious - after all, who wants to rock the boat. I explained this, and told Phillip that we were exercising our individual rights as set out in our deeds permitting us to widening the road and of unhindered access. Without going into reams of text in this entry - basically I went on to explain all the reasons in the previous posting on the website. Phillip seemed quite reasonable during this discussion, and I told him it was nice for us to finally hear it from them directly instead of rumours and chinese whispers fed via their network of neighbours who work for them!

I explained to Phillip that it was a shame that the Community service volunteers that we were trying to organise got blocked to help us do the work - He said he was unaware of what was going on being the reason for blocking it. We then asked him if he had no objections now he could see how beneficial the work would be for our community as it was a very unreasonable that now Andy and I were having to do all the work ourselves because of that decsion, and that they should reconsider their decision. Phillip then said he had no objections now, so I suggested if he could contact the person who called them and approve it. I will be contacting Phillip with the phone number of the Community service team leader so hopefully things will happen and finally we'll get some help and manpower!

Phillip actually commented how well we were doing the work, which was a pleasant surprise, so I thanked him and said our intention was to improve things for all of Lee-Over-Sands - not just for ourselves. I also explained that as we all have individual rights that the views of one or two residents should not adversely affect the rest.

Phillip also mentioned that over the next 10 years there could be issues with the water supply as the pipework is old and imperial fittings based, so this could become a future issue, should more faults develop, suggesting that we should start investigating alternative supply arrangements with a local water company.

I suggested that ideally we would form a residents committee in the near future to sort things like this out for all of us. And as we exchanged contact details, I re-iterated Andy's suggestion and said it would be a nice gesture for Smiths farm to offer to provide some materials to help us continue the work.

So all in all a good positive outcome. The Smiths seem happy with what we have done thusfar, and so do all the residents, apart from those that work for or have vested interests / favours with the landowners.

I think time will prove that this work is for everyone's benefit, and finally getting a chance to have a dialogue with the landowner directly gave Andy and I great satisfaction for future maintenance of our road.

Houses for sale in Lee-Over-Sands

Looks like there are two houses up for sale in Beach Road at the moment, one is the first substantially built one with security cameras on the left as you go down the road, and the other is this one, which is mid way along... "BON ACCORD"
http://www.bedfords.co.uk/SearchPropertyDetails.aspx?propid=35332_BSE100195#property_search

The Water Tower

Lee-Over-Sand's water supply comes from the landowner, Guy Smith - our community is very lucky enough not to have to pay anything towards our water supply! This appears to be due to a covenant in our deeds referring back to the original sale of the plots stating that water was provided.

A part of this incumbent legacy water supply infrastructure is the water tower at the end of Wall Street. We've been getting increasingly concerned about the condition of the support structure for the water tower. With vehicles nearby and children who often play around it, Andy has expressed his concerns about it to me on numerous occasions.

As its in a highly exposed position, corrosion and rust has started to weaken the metal supports - as you can see from the photos below. This obviously means that as time goes on, without maintenance by the landowner (who provides the community's water supply) It could become dangerously unstable.

 
Its believed that the tower is there to provide adequate water pressure to properties on Beach Road, which are 2 metres higher than those in Wall Street, from where the supply originates - so this helps increase the usable pressure on the system. Unless Beach Road's supply is completely seperate from the tower, as our water supply in Wall Street is exactly 3 bar, I think it might also provide a head (boost) to our pressure, and its height would indicate - although turning it off would confirm it, the latter is a theory of mine.

Otherwise this could be the only water supply feed to Beach Road, a seperate stored water system, fed from Wall Street's supply, up and into the tank, then gravity boosted downwards with a pipe going across the seawall.


So theoretically - if the water is stored for Beach Road in this tank, then it shouldn't be drinkable. 

Access Road Maintenance 2010

Andrew Haynes (3 Wall Street) and I have recently started to work on filling holes in the road with crushed hardcore. Andy and I wrote to the landowner (Guy Smith) about the bad condition of the road back in early 2010 as the track had deteriorated to a point where normal road cars were grounding due to excessive pot holes and dips.

Our chief concerns were our access rights were suffering as a result, the Royal Mail had threatened to stop deliveries to us, and increasingly delivery lorries are increasingly refusing to come down to us for fear of vehicle damage or damage to goods in the back of their vehicles while travelling over the rough track.

Despite our efforts, the landowner did not bother to reply in writing to me or Mr Haynes.

In years gone by, previous residents and workers in the area have told us (although of course these are unconfirmed rumours) that previously the landowner's father maintained the road each year, but over the last few years this regrettably ended. We were worried that access was getting difficult, and of course deterioration only gets worse - which would make it difficult to get emergency vehicles and deliveries to Lee-Over-Sands.

Rumours say that last year Jim Doran from the caravan site plot in Wall Street started to repair the road, but was allegedly stopped doing the work by Guy, who stated that instead he would supply material, labour and machinery, regrettably nothing happened afterwards.

With these concerns in mind - both for our individual and community access rights - our reasons for our letter was to send out a clear message by sending a copy of our first letter to Mr Smith about our intentions and sent copies to all residents. We expected a reasonable and fair written response which we would have publised to all residents of Lee-Over-Sands - but months later, nothing... No action!

Whilst some residents with 4x4 and larger vehicles seem unbothered and enjoy the additional isolative barrier the road generates - the important thing to remember here is that the feelings of one or two indivuals should not conflict - as legally as individual homeowners, each home has rights - so the views of some cannot restrict the rights of others to unihindered access.

Our main concerns though over and above individual access rights are that of concern for our neighbours - given that we have older residents in Wall Street - emergency vehicle access and response time - is critical with heart disease - and the last thing we want is for the landowner/s or other dissenting residents to be directly responsible for a death down our road if an ambulance could not get here in time.

To be honest we really don't care about the politics - we just care how it is affecting our lives - which of course is basically stopping family members and friends visiting us for fear of damage to their cars etc.

As residents we all have individual access rights - we are home owners. Our properties' deeds state we can widen the road at any time, and to do this, obviously repair work needs to be done first to stop the winter freeze-thaw and structural differences in materials on the surface producing any more holes and dips and make the surface stable. Water pooling is the enemy here, so we are doing all we can to remedy the situation now before it gets so bad the landowner starts getting consequential vehicular damage claims from all of us!

Materials & Labour Cost
Andy and I decided to minimise costs by trying to do the work ourselves. This is on a voluntary basis, and we expect all users of the road to help in some way, however little or much they can help will be gratefully received, whether you rent or own a property in our hamlet - if you go up and down the track its only fair you should contribute.

Andy is paying for the fuel in his digger and tipper truck, with he & I doing shovelling when required to level more accurately.

Labour is on a voluntary basis - please help if you can and contact Derek & Andy to arrange a date to help. Or call round to see us at the end of Wall Street to pledge/provide financial donations to materials.

Alternatively if you don't trust us with your funds, you can order crushed hardcore yourself, or pay to have it delivered to us, and we will be pleased to put it onto the road!

Road Maintenance Contributions:
Andrew 7/6/2010   - £91 - 10 Tons of crushed hardcore
Derek:   11/6/2010 - £182 - 20 Tons of crushed hardcore
Mrs Haynes 14 & 15/6/2010 - £500 - 60 Tons of crushed hardcore

UPDATE: 25/10/2010
Total amount of material used so far:
10 tons - Andrew Haynes
20 tons - Derek Foley
20 tons - Mrs Haynes
20 tons (yet to be used - outside Andrew's home) - Mrs Haynes
Leaving £136 from Mrs Haynes contribution outstanding.

Future Pledges from:
Gaie Foley (22 Beach Road - no relation)
Chris (Beach Road)
Derek Foley (2nd 20 Ton load later in the year)

Update: 2/7/2010
Stephen Sproat of Beach Road very kindly expressed an interest to contribute towards the road maintenance - to be confirmed.

Welcome to our new blog!

This is the Lee-Over-Sands Residents Blog - designed to bring facts and local information about issues to the residents of this small hamlet of houses on Beach Road and Wall Street on Colne Point between Point Clear and St Osyth Seawick Holiday Village.

I decided to start this blog to shed some light in a public forum about things that concern residents and to give the people a chance to make a difference and know the facts instead of relying on rumours!

Feel free to post, discuss and chat.
All postings will be moderated by me, Derek Foley (6 Wall Street) for suitability.