Day of Action Photos

Our Day of Action on 1 September 2007 was very successful and was attended by approximately 100 members.

Here are some photos from the day:

 

Following the day of action we had a meeting with Cllr Harry Shearing, the TDC technical services portfolio holder, and John Ryan, head of technical services at TDC. We put our concerns to them very forcefully and have got agreement that they will step up their campaign to get defra to come up with the money to implement the necessary £24 million scheme. They have since lobbied defra direct as well as taking up the issue with both our M.P., Douglas Carswell, and the Labour Parliamentary candidate, Ivan Henderson, who themselves have both lobbied the Government on our behalf. Defra have also paid a visit to the seafront to look at the problems themselves.

However, the best defra can suggest at the moment is putting in place a couple of emergency schemes, costing about £1.2 million to alleviate the worst of the problem.

There is real fear now that of we have a bad winter much of the sea wall in Holland can collapse and, even if the winter is not too severe, there is still likely to be some damage to the wall. We must and will continue to keep up the pressure on both TDC and the Government to deal with this problem, otherwise there will be no beach at all in Holland-on-Sea within the next ten years.

Cllr Shearing also accepted our invitation to speak at the Association's end-of-season meeting. He explained what TDC were doing and answered questions from the floor.

Two other issues which have arisen:

1. The closure of the lower prom to traffic and the removal of dustbins. Because of the uncertainty over the state of the lower road and the sea wall, the road has been closed to traffic for an indeterminate period until it is decided that it is safe to use again. This means that all the dustbins have been removed from the lower prom as they can no longer be collected. They have been moved to the upper prom. We have asked that the bins be collected more frequently and that the lower prom is cleaned more frequently as well.

2. Car Parking. It was agreed at the TDC Budget meeting held on 19 February that Tendring District Council resident beach hut owners who pay site licence fees to TDC and who apply for a parking permit at a cost of £20.00 will receive a rebate of £15 on their beach hut licence fees.