DISTRICT COUNCIL

Council Offices, London Road, Saffron Walden, CB11 4ER Telephone (01799) 510510, Fax (01799) 510550 Textphone Users 18001 Email [email protected] Website www.uttlesford.gov.uk

COUNCILLOR CHRISTIAN CRISCIONE B.A.(HONS) Member for & Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group

Adrian Coggins, Head of Wellbeing and Public Health Commissioning Essex County Council County Hall Chelmsford Essex CM1 1QH VIA EMAIL

Monday 13 July 2020

Your Ref: 130720207001

Please ask for Councillor Criscione on 01799 510 548 or email [email protected]

Dear Adrian,

FELSTED TRAVELLER SITE

I write to you, once again, as the ward member for Flitch Green and Little Dunmow ward in Uttlesford, to ask for immediate action – which has already been promised, but not undertaken – in relation to significant environmental health and anti-social behaviour issues at the Traveller Site.

There are four specific action items on which we as a community are frankly demanding that action be taken. Enough is enough, and Essex County Council’s management of the site – regardless of its intentions to sell it off – needs an urgent review. The Essex Countywide Traveller Unit (ECTU) is failing to care for the community both on and off the site. It is failing in its duty of care to the public. It is failing to take responsibility by aiding other agencies in catching the criminals responsible for repeated anti-social behaviour and environmental health issues.

The action items:

1. To install CCTV, perhaps even covert in nature to avoid easy vandalism of the system at great expense, at the rear part of the site – which by the way after significant remedial works has travellers now occupying the space illegally – so that we can pinpoint and bring to justice the perpetrators of huge fires on the site that engulf Flitch Green in smoke.

In the last week alone our communities have been completely engulfed by toxic black smoke, made up primarily of plastic and rubber fumes but also including commercial green waste, and nothing is being done to block access to the rear part to prevent this happening, nor to catch those responsible. It is without doubt a statutory nuisance.

The smoke is so great and so polluting that people with asthma and other underlying health conditions are locked in to just one room in their house because even when windows are closed

130720207001 – Cllr Chris Criscione 1 the smoke seeps through by other means and is too great for them to move around their own home.

I cannot describe how bad the smoke was last week. We had a fire every day with varying degrees of toxicity, but the greatest was on Saturday when I was contacted by a number of suffering residents in despair. Individuals, children and their families cannot leave their homes. I have emailed you three times, as well as following up with phone calls, on the CCTV initiative with no response. Let’s stop hiding behind legislation and red tape: face up to the challenge and do everything possible to prevent trespass and the deathly fires that occur on the rear part of the site.

To be clear, there should be no issue with privacy and data protection solely because that part of the site is no longer an occupied area and therefore anyone caught on camera would be breaking the law and thus can be photographed. There is little or no reason why this cannot be done.

I can provide plenty of footage and images of fires on the site, many taken by passing residents in shock at what they see. I will not accept Stephen Andrews previous assertion that only a couple of fires have taken place over the past few months, that is a blatant lie.

2. Block off the rear of the site as you promised you would. The concrete blocks have been moved for weeks, even after we have reported this to ECTU repeatedly. Mr Andrews (ECTU manager) continues to purport that there are no travellers on the rear of the site: please see the attached taken on 26 June (2+ weeks ago). In addition to blocking off the site, the gaps in the fence and in other areas along the boundary also need plugging. I would say with conviction that in my professional life as a property developer that if I were to leave a site empty, unchecked and unsecure, I’d be receiving a visit from the HSE in quick time.

3. Clear up the rest of the site. The clear up of years’ worth of fly-tipping was most welcome, but it is very apparent that the perimeter of the site – open to the public along the Flitch Way Country Park – is still blighted by waste. Broken glass and asbestos have been identified in this waste. Again, we have continuously asked for this to be addressed but with no action undertaken. The waste outside the site so very clearly originated from the traveller site – this is not something on which ECC can abdicate responsibility. I think I speak for the Council in saying that they will not be paying for the clear up caused by gross mismanagement of the site. Residents in the last day have reported to me that they can still hear rubbish being added periodically to the waste piles. I quote: “It is still there and I can still hear it being added to on a regular basis including this weekend”.

4. A Scrutiny Review of ECTU as a landowner and tenant manager. The reason why is abundantly obvious, but put simply it’s because the handling of this site by ECTU and its managers represents gross mis-management, neglect of environmental health responsibilities as a public authority and a failure to prevent criminal activity. The fact you are looking to shift the sites to new owners should not get in the way of this review because it is most urgent.

ECTU is failing residents on the site and residents of Flitch Green and Little Dunmow in caring for their health, wellbeing and safety. The age old saying that “something must be done” is an understatement and residents here in Flitch Green & Little Dunmow ward demand action having been so nice and so cooperative for so long – and that includes me. We will not let this continue, and will hold ECTU and its managers directly responsible for this site in our correspondence to ministers and prominent figures should the actions above not be undertaken. Our community is so close to taking action into its own hands, and that is something that I want to categorically prevent by simply asking you to take responsibility for your own site.

130720207001 – Cllr Chris Criscione 2 There are a number of people copied in to this email, including:

• Cllr Simon Walsh as County Councillor for our area and also the Cabinet Member for Environment; • Cllr Susan Barker as Cabinet Member with responsibility for travellers; • Emma Nicholls, Helen Mason, Jeff Thomas and Angela Balcombe from the two Parish Councils; • Marcus Watts and Roger Harborough from UDC who I have no doubt will be interested in the above as the statutory body responsible for environmental health and protection; • Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner who will also no doubt be interested in the fact that nothing is being done to prevent a problem which continues to see vast Fire and Police money and time wasted; • Kemi Badenoch, Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden, who has been kept up to date so far with the lack of action on site.

I will also be sharing the attached letter (a copy of this email) with residents, who are eagerly waiting for action to be taken and indeed to simply leave their homes when they want to do so without risk of choking to death.

From a personal perspective, having been so very close to this issue over the last year, I had truly hoped that I wouldn’t need to adopt a stronger sense of firmness in my tone and relationship with you and other ECTU managers. Notwithstanding the public health emergency before us which is absolutely recognised, I’m very sorry to say that many have agreed with me that this approach is now necessary.

I look forward to a prompt and comprehensive undertaking of the above actions, as well as a prompt and comprehensive response to my correspondence that I can share with my residents post-haste.

Yours Sincerely,

Councillor Chris Criscione B.A.(Hons)

130720207001 – Cllr Chris Criscione 3