Burnt out car on Beach Road

Residents this morning were treated to fire-engines and Police who were called out to a burning car left abandoned half way down the rough track past the sewage farm towards Lee-Over-Sands.

By the looks of things, the thieves had tried to turn the vehicle around, realising the road was going nowhere - and the car grounded as the wheels went off the side of the road, and it was then torched to hide evidence.

As we're in a remote location this presumably meant they had a long walk back to somewhere!

UPDATE: It must have been someone local after all - it was stolen from St Osyth... I wonder if anyone was seen walking back towards St Osyth or Point Clear that night...

Read the local newspaper report here: http://www.clactonandfrintongazette.co.uk/news/9228684.Stolen_car_found_burnt_out/

Wall Street Water Supply Agreement Draft created for residents to view.

Frank Bollu, Andrew Haynes & Derek Foley met today to discuss and work on a draft of an agreement to present to Smith's Farms in regard to a solution to the water system impasse with Smith's Farms.

Residents will be receiving this document over the next couple of days by post (letterbox) and email. Please respond ASAP so we can resolve this and start reducing worry and stress levels all round!

Once all residents on the landward side connecting to the Wall Street supply are happy with the draft agreement we will formalise it, and present it to Guy Smith to start formal written negotiations.

Lee-Over-Sands - Wall Street Water Supply consultations in progress

Guy Smith met with me today in response to my suggestion in an email today that further to his recent offer letters the best way for all parties to agree and solve the current impasse.

This was prompted by concerns over a constantly changing set of circumstances and different verbal promises which seemed now to be in question by some residents and at odds with written facts in his letters.

Despite some odd leverage tactics on his part which were totally uneccessary given our dismay at the ongoing grief and stress we're all facing in relation to this, and our joint frustrations, I remained unmoved and proposed that the best way forward to give us and Guy a lot less stress is to draft a proper written agreement between us that will be mutually agreed.

Pleased to also report that during this informal meeting when the £1000 issue was raised again to which I gave my usual repetitious response, to which he also finally agreed to finish making good his work on my meter installation.

Once again I found myself for the THIRD time pointing out contrary to the Wall Street gossip rumours that I've always actively encouraged residents to contribute towards the upgrade if they are happy with the end result of the work and what they are getting in exchange for their £1000 and is a matter for individual households to decide upon. As all residents know my only issue was with him finishing the work on making good my meter pit and boundary as agreed if that's done then I'm happy to part with my hard earned, it seems fair to me.

Readers of the blog and residents know I've always said that in my opinon his updating of the pipework to our doors and fitting of meters to help with fair billing was always a good offer and extremely good value for money £1000 for a new modern pipe right to our doors, pressure tested and with a meter fitted is very affordable and reasonable if you compare it to Veolia's original cost projections per household. Lets hope now its not mentioned EVER again!

So after this and some light at the end of the tunnel being glimpsed in the form of Guy's letter of response to Frank's questions, Andy Haynes and I later started to put together a draft agreement for all resident's approval before we present it to Guy.

We'll be distributing our first draft to all landward L.O.S. residents for approval/comments asap.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

The water supply - a vicious circle

A vicious circle exists for Mr Smith: Where to accept water payments for his private water supply would be to accept responsibility for its maintenance; and to reject responsibility for the water supply means providing an alternative.

Hence his strategy of demanding subscriber payments to the new supply pipe work, instead of previously billing recipients for the water they have received over the years.

The irony is, that had regular water bills been circulated, over the years they could have paid for future independently billed household Veolia supplies for Lee over sands residents, whilst also satisfying Mr Smith’s insatiable desire to disband their private Water supply.

I believe that in the language of Pooh, Piglet & Christopher Robin what has actually happened would be know as an “un-compromise”. What do you think?

Ben Smith's Birthday Party

Date 15^th August 2011

Read on, for matters of little consequence!

It appears that Smiths Farms younger generation may be moving into the field (of Rave parties). To be precise the field next to Lee over Sands, but also not too far from the Smiths’ respective homes in nearby Wigboro Wick.

I was on the phone to Guy Smith at 4.30am yesterday morning, when the field rave nearby changed up a gear, boosting the sound to ‘raising the dead’ levels, & playing havoc with my sleep pattern. Guy must have been at his desk the speed he picked up the phone, and instantly referred me on to his brother Philip Smith, who unsurprisingly was not responding at 4.30am .

The party continued the following day and whilst propping up my eye lids with match sticks that afternoon, I decided to telephone Philip again to try and head off another potentially sleepless night. I was asking Philip for reassurance the sound system would not be turned up in the small hours when we were trying to sleep on a second night running. Philip was unwilling to give me this re-assurance, but it wasn’t long before he asked if we were going to sign a water agreement, although which water agreement he was not quite sure about. I had to put the phone down in the end when one of my matchsticks collapsed under the strain of my emulsified eyeballs. It was a relief when the party goers finally called it a day and not a second night. We understand Ben Smith is responsible for the rave, happy birthday Ben, live long & prosper!

The following day, whilst ‘walking my dog’ by the sea wall next to the party site, I realised the Hay stack wall we had all been a little perplexed by, was the best possible sound proofing between the party and the Smith brothers respective homes nestling out of view in the back ground behind it. Another resident took the view the Hay stack was actually designed to funnel sound directly at us. There was certainly nothing to prevent the sound coming our way.