This week I had been making inquiries at Rochford District Council into the electric vehicle charging points that have been installed in Websters Way carpark and the Market Car Park. After I was contacted by a resident who has an EV and they tried to use a charging point without success!
I have really struggled to get the information from the Council on what is happening with this project and on further investigation, it might be because the project lead has left Rochford District Council!
It’s really quite worrying that no one seems to know anything about this important project. Back in July, the Council was keen to announce, in this press release, that the EV charging points would be installed. 5 months later, residents have been left wanting and living up to its reputation, Rochford District Councils residents have been left in the dark about any progress on the project.
Now, today, we learn that to add further chaos to the sorry state of the small efforts the Council is not making to clean up its act on air quality, the Echo reports that a congestion charge proposal is back on the table for the A127.
The consequences of this proposal for our District, particularly in the West of the District could be dire. Pushing traffic from the A127 to the local roads such as the A129.
If the Conservative portfolio holder doesn’t get their act together quickly on this one, we could easily find ourselves in constant gridlock in the very near future.
For now, though don’t visit our district from afar if you are driving an EV as we won’t be catering for the EV revolution anytime soon (that we know of…)
Air pollution in Rayleigh
I was in Rayleigh High Street on Market Day (Wednesday) recently and noticed that a large (8 – seater) taxi was parked in the temporary taxi rank located in the lay-by adjacent to the Town Clock. The driver was sitting in the cab, presumably waiting for a fare and had the engine running all the time he was there (I assume to keep him warm). The exhaust fumes produced by this action were wafting across the pavement and were being inhaled by all the passers-by who were in the vicinity. If we are to improve the air quality in Rayleigh practices such as the one described in this comment should be banned. We have Council Parking Meter attendants patrolling our streets issuing fines to people who park in the wrong place or overstay their time. I suggest that the duties of these attendants should be extended to “police” our streets and put a stop to this form of pollution.
I agree. In summer too. We should be adopting an ‘anti idling’ policy in our towns. I will speak to officers and see what they suggest