Councillors: We'll keep fighting over Devonshire Road (From Thurrock Gazette)

Councillors: We'll keep fighting over Devonshire Road (From Thurrock Gazette):

FOUR councillors have vowed to continue fighting against a decision to lift weight restrictions on a Chafford Hundred road.

Garry Hague, Tunde Ojetola, Simon Wootton and Steven Veryard urged members of Thurrock Council’s planning, regeneration and transport committee to hold off lifting the 7.5 tonne weight limit on Devonshire Road until a public consultation was carried out.

But the committee voted against their request, despite the three councillors' claim that removing the weight limit will increase the number of lorries on the road from 120 to up to 752 per day.

Tory Cllr Hague said: “These residents bought their properties with the knowledge a weight restriction was in force to restrict HGV traffic.

“Quite understandably they have very serious concerns over the potential impacts of opening up Devonshire Road to HGVs."

The decision to lift the restriction was approved by leading councillors during a cabinet meeting at the beginning of last November.

The councillors then asked the council to “call-in” the decision and discuss it at last week’s overview and scrutiny committee meeting.

Mr Hague believes Thurrock Council’s cabinet approved the proposal without vital information.

He added: “This is a flawed decision.

“The speed of vehicles on the road has not been considered and there has been no analysis on whether applying a re-surfacing treatment to the road would have any positive impact.

“I do sympathise with the residents of London Road but putting in place a weight limit there and lifting the one in Devonshire Road just shifts the problem to an area where residents have not experienced such volumes of HGV traffic.

“This cannot be the right thing to do and we will continue to work with residents and the Chafford Forum to fight this decision every inch of the way.”

New nursery opens at school (From Thurrock Gazette)

New nursery opens at school (From Thurrock Gazette):

EXCITED children celebrated the opening of a new nursery building in Chafford Hundred.

Building started on the environmentally-friendly centre, within Chafford Hundred Primary School, last Easter.

Headteacher Mike Lovett said the former nursery block will be transformed into three reception classrooms.

He added: “The growth in Chafford Hundred as a housing area gives us the capacity to meet the needs of families in the area.”

Waste and Recycling Collections Changed

Dear Residents,
A notice has been published on the council's waste & recycling pages:

"Waste & recycling collections suspended - Monday 6 February 2012, 11:20am

Due to dangerous conditions on smaller roads/pavements, waste and recycling collections were suspended on Monday 6 February.

With conditions now improving, all collections this week will be put back one day.

Streets due for collections on Monday have been rescheduled for Tuesday 7 February, and so on, with Friday's collections being picked up on Saturday 11 February. A full collection - grey/green, blue and brown bins - is expected.

The Civic Amenity site at Linford is open as normal."

On the street-by-street schedule pages, the next scheduled collection date for every street in Thurrock has been updated.

The following two tweets have been put out:

"#Thurrock waste collections will resume tomorrow with Monday's rounds. All collections put back one day with Friday's round now on Saturday."

"All #Thurrock waste collections to be put back one day. Please see notice and revised schedule for your street: http://bit.ly/bm9UA3"

Regards
Cllr Tunde Ojetola
South Chafford Ward
Thurrock Council

Diversity champions reflect on holocaust visit | Your Thurrock

Diversity champions reflect on holocaust visit | Your Thurrock:

IT IS CLEARLY an intense experience: the experience of visiting Auschwitz/Birkenau. But the officers at Thurrock Council have been very keen for the students who go on the trip to use the experience as a springboard.

It is with that in mind that they have become Thurrock Diversity Champions and are determined to go out into the community and fight racism and prejudice at every turn.

On Thursday, the students from Grays Convent, Gateway Academy, William Edwards, Ormiston Park, Harris Academy as well as staff from Thurrock Council and Trust reflected on their experiences at the Thameside Theatre.

The official email of the British Prime Minister

The official email of the British Prime Minister:

Coasting schools

Last year I spoke out about the scandal of coasting schools – the ones that are content to muddle along without trying hard to improve. These might be schools in leafy areas that get above-average results, or schools in inner cities that have seen flat-lining poor results; what links them isn’t the scores they’re getting, but the complacent attitude that says things are OK just as they are.

This year we’re doing something about it. Ofsted have announced today that they’re changing the rating system for schools. It used to be that some schools were labelled ‘satisfactory’. Now they’re abolishing that label and replacing it with a new one: ‘requires improvement’.

This is not some small bureaucratic change. It marks a massive shift in attitude. I don’t want the word ‘satisfactory’ to exist in our education system. “Just good enough” is frankly not good enough. Every teacher, every head and every school should be aiming for excellence – no lower.

These words are being backed by action. Schools that ‘require improvement’ will be re-inspected within 12-18 months – instead of the 3-year break between inspections they’ve had in recent years. And the bar of expectation is getting higher too. Schools can only be found to ‘require improvement’ twice. At their third inspection they must be rated at least ‘good’ or they will be placed in special measures.

To those who say that this will alienate some schools, I say we’ve got to stop making excuses and start doing what is best for our children: demanding excellence and confronting complacency wherever we find it.

Making this change of attitude felt on the ground, in classrooms, will be a massive team effort. That’s why this afternoon I’m holding a meeting in Downing Street with some of the country’s most inspiring head-teachers, as well as Sir Michael Wilshaw, the new head of Ofsted. In his previous job as head of Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, Sir Michael said ‘no’ to complacency and failure, and turned that school around. Now he’s going to help us drive the nationwide transformation of our schools.

Be in no doubt: this is a government that is incredibly ambitious for all the children in our country – and we will fight for them to get the best start in life.

David Cameron
Prime Minister

Community Forum meeting - Tuesday 24th January @ 8pm

Dear residents,

We would like to invite you to the next meeting on Tuesday evening at the Drake Road Community Centre.

Meeting will start at 8pm - we have more news on the park, plus local Police and Councillors will be available to speak to residents.

This meeting is open to all residents of Chafford Hundred and North Stifford.

We look forward to seeing you on the night.

Best wishes,


Ladychair
Chafford Hundred Community Forum

Open invitation to Diversity Champions project

The Prince's Trust

Dear Residents


The Prince’s Trust have a new Team starting at the end of January and are looking for ideas for our next community project.  


The young people on the course choose a project that they feel will most benefit the local community.  The community project lasts for 4 weeks, 2 weeks are spent fund raising and planning for the project and the last 2 weeks are spent carrying out the work for the project (starts 6th Feb 2012 to 1st March 2012).  


If you have any projects in mind please click on my name to email me:
 Councillor Tunde Ojetola

Last Week in Thurrock Council

Dear Residents

As something new this year, I will give a weekly summary of events/activities I carried out on your behalf in the Council:

Licensing committee
We considered a new sex establishment policy for the Council  - this will be ratified at the full council meeting at the end of January.
We also considered the proposed dispersal order for some wards and this will also be aired at full council.

Auschwitz-Birkenau visit
2 dozen students, staff and members of the Council will visit the concentration camps in Krakow this weekend.  This visit - supported by the Government's Take Part programme and has been taking place over the past few years in Thurrock and many students have had the opportunity to take part.

If you have any questions, please contact me: tojetola@thurrock.gov.uk

Mayflower/Norfolk Place Yellow lines

Dear Residents

To protect residents and road users in the area, we have introduced new restrictions as follows:

Mayflower Road, east side, from a point 10 metres north of its junction with Norfolk Place to a point 13 metres south of its junction with Norfolk Place

Norfolk Place, both sides, from its junction with Mayflower Road in an easterly direction for a distance of 10 metres.

If this causes a nuisance to you, please contact me asap via tojetola@thurrock.gov.uk