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An Open Letter About Policing In Frinton And Walton

Updated 13/02/2012

At our Town Council meeting a few weeks ago, I suggested that we were getting “10 Pence Policing” – in other words, for every £1 paid in direct or indirect taxes by our 19,000 residents, only 10p is being spent on visible policing in our town area.

An Essex Police spokesman said (on your behalf) that it was more than that – perhaps so, but I suspect a detailed analysis would find that any sporadic extras, such as traffic patrol, CID and mounted police, would scarcely take the total to 20p. Whether it is 10p or 20p, the point still remains valid – our residents are quite obviously paying a lot for not very much.

Click here to read the full letter

Tendring First announces its district housing policy for the next 15 years

As part of the current public consultation process, Tendring First announced its policy on future housing development throughout the District of Tendring, which already has some 60,000 homes and nearly 150,000 residents.

“This whole process has cast a shadow over all our communities for far too long”, said Jack Robertson, Tendring First Chairman. “We believe our proposal for a new conurbation in the mid-west of the district is not only plain common sense, but also removes a potential blight on all, but one or two of our existing towns and villages.”

“The balance of housing growth around Tendring will be driven from the bottom up – by the communities themselves – in response to natural demand, rather than by some nonsensical edict from distant bureaucrats and/or politicians”, he continued, “This, after all, is what the Government promised us over a year ago.”

Click here for our official response to Public Consultation on Housing Development in Tendring

“Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside……”

The 100 or so beach hut owners at the Walings, Frinton-on-Sea, have seen the value of their huts increase in the last two or so years from £20,000 in the depths of the last recession to £30,000 today. That equates to a £1 million windfall for a few lucky people in a district of nearly 150,000 residents.

Click here for full story

Footpath 36 Saved for Kirby Le Soken

Long, long ago in 2008, Tendring District Council granted planning permission for the flooding of farmland to the north of Kirby le Soken village, for the creation of new natural habitat towards replacing salt marsh which has been lost over many decades through natural progression of wind and waves against the backwaters (Hamford Water) seawall. The flooding was to be achieved by breaching the seawall by 150-200 metres between Quay Lane and Peters Point, this being part of a very popular footpath walk stretching from Beaumont in the west towards Walton to the east.

Click here for full story

Town hall turkeys did not vote for christmas

In last week’s Gazette reader Chris Kitcher (Cabinet ought to be smaller) gave two good examples of why Tendring District Council’s cabinet should be reduced in size from its current 10 members. It seems that at least two portfolio holders have not been as effective as they might have been recently in representing and championing the needs of the district.

Click here to read more.

Thank you...

...to the 10,593 residents of Tendring who entrusted us with their vote at the May 2011 District Elections

This represented 39.0% of the 27,171 votes cast in the 20 (out of 60) seats that we challenged, a truly remarkable achievement for a local independent party set against all three national parties (which polled 58.4% between them).

As a result, 8 Tendring First councillors were elected and a number of our other candidates came a close second. Although this was a net loss of two seats, it still was an excellent result in the face of an increased turnout by the electorate, spurred on to vote against the Alternative Vote (AV) Referendum.

At the Town and Parish level, fifteen Tendring First councillors were returned, ten of them winning control of Frinton and Walton Town Council (out of 16 seats).

So now, following and consolidating on the very solid performance at the 2007 District Council elections and the 2009 County Council elections, Tendring First finds itself in a very strong position to challenge for a greater number of seats in 2013 and 2015.

Supporting this, membership has increased and, combined with various fund-raising events and techniques, helps to create a regular and stable source of income to put Tendring First on a strong financial footing to enable another effective challenge as Tendring’s own local politically-independent party.

Thank you once again for your continued support, from all of us at Tendring First