Author: ChannelsResidentsUK

Private Roads

Many residents may not realise that there are a couple of private roads on the development, the maintenance and upkeep of which are the responsibility of those that occupy the properties in these areas.

As such access is restricted and in particular the turning head at the end of Niblick Green (see image below) should not be used for general parking.

Signs are due to be installed imminently to make clear which areas should be considered as private access and once this has taken place, the areas of note will be confirmed via the website and/or the Facebook Group.

Landscaping Preparation

Please note that a large area of land (shown in the images below) is currently being prepared prior to handover to the RMC. We have pushed Bellway hard recently to ensure that the land is prepared to the requisite standard and this has led to the delivery and laying of new topsoil before seeding of the grass takes place. Frequent watering will be undertaken over the coming weeks to ensure the grass can become established.

The area needs to be free from any form of human traffic and as such residents (and anyone else) should refrain from walking or cycling over it at any time.

Bellway will be leaving the site imminently and once the land is deemed to have been prepared appropriately, it will be handed over to the RMC and new managing agent (once formally appointed).

It is important to note that from the point of handover to the RMC, any further remedial work required to ensure the land can be maintained in line with the agreed Grounds Maintenance Specification will be at the expense of residents via the annual service charge.

It is therefore in our interests to ensure that the area is left to become established so that it can be enjoyed by all in the future!

New Road Markings

As you will be aware, all of the roads around the development have now been fully surfaced. Bellway needs to lay road markings in line with Highways requirements and the work to complete this is planned for Monday 1st July 2019.

There is likely to be some disruption to traffic during the day however this will be managed by the ground working team still on site at Channels. The areas to be road lined are as follows:

  • Completion of double yellows to the road nearest the permanent Bus Stop.
  • Permanent Bus Stop boundaries.
  • Roads/Junctions nearest the temporary Bus Stop.
  • Main road back to the Channels Drive roundabout.

It is likely that some of the priorities at junctions will be changed to accommodate the new bus route (which is also due to go live on Monday 1st July) so please take extra care for the first few days while you familiarise yourselves with any changes.

Planning Updates

Chelmsford City Council has received amendments relating to application 19/00581/REM which incorporate proposed changes to the general design, additional soft landscaping and responses to comments received from local stakeholders and residents of both Beaulieu & Channels.

The details of the amended application are on the Planning Portal under ‘Plans & Documents’.

Update 2nd July 2019:
City Councillor Barry Knight advised at the Little Waltham Parish Council Meeting on 2nd July that the application has been referred to, and will be considered at, Planning Committee in early August.

Residents are reminded that the deadline for posting comments is Wednesday 10th July and it is important that if you want your view to be known, they are submitted via the planning portal for consideration by the Planning Committee.

51 Bus Service Update

Last month, Melanie Williamson (Channels Resident & Parish Councillor for Little Waltham) attended a transport planning meeting arranged by Essex County Council. First Bus advised that the frequency of the 51 Bus Service would decrease at certain times and whilst the overall average and mean times for the service over the six days that it runs would remain at 30 minutes, some buses would only run up to every 40 minutes.

Unfortunately the amended frequency and timing impacted the busy period between 5pm & 7pm which would not have been helpful for either those that work in Chelmsford or those that commute as buses did not align with the arrival of trains.

As previously reported this issue was raised by Melanie Williamson at the Little Waltham Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 4th June with the result that both County Councillor John Aldridge and the Parish Council agreed to support residents in lobbying for the timetable to be re-considered.

We also wrote directly to Channels Omnibus Ltd, which is the organisation originally commissioned by developers to procure the 51 Bus Service, on behalf of residents noting concerns raised as a result of the the proposed timetable being shared.

A response has been received from Channels Omnibus Ltd as follows:

“…I am very pleased to report that they (First Bus) have both revisited and revised the timetable for the Channels Bus Service (Number 51) to address the concerns that you raise. They will be adding two additional buses from the Bus Station to Channels (at 18:00 and at 18:40) which means that a 20 minute service will be provided between 17:40 and 19:00. I attach a copy of the revised timetable for your reference and distribution. These changes to the timetable will take effect from Monday, 2 September 2019.”

On the assumption that reliability continues to improve, and is maintained, this should provide a robust and regular bus service to Channels residents which addresses the general concerns in relation to frequency and timing at key periods during the day.

To conclude, the originally amended timetable will still take effect on Monday 1st July and the new timetable with increased frequency at the peak evening time will take effect from Monday 2nd September.

Timetable wef Monday 1st July
Timetable wef Monday 2nd September

If you do encounter problems with the bus service (i.e. if it does not turn up or is more than 10 minutes late), don’t forget to log them so that we can provide feedback to the appropriate stakeholders.

All in all this is excellent news. There has been a significant improvement in the reliability of the bus service over recent months due to the persistence of the Community Group and the revised timetable shows that we do have a voice as residents as well support of key stakeholders. 🙂

Andrew Wright
Channels Residents Community Group

New Managing Agent

Please find some important information in relation to the procurement of a new managing agent to replace DJC.

Although all residents will receive this information formally from RMC Directors, as the partnership with DJC has just over one month left to run it was felt that residents should know the position at the earliest opportunity.

Brassie Wood Road Surfacing

Please be advised that Bellway have programmed in remedial works along Brassie Wood in anticipation of the Bus Route change at the end of June. The programme is as follows:-

Current Work
Raising iron works to both areas highlighted on diagram below.

Thursday 13th June
The shaded area in yellow/orange to have 40-60mm of the current surface (binder) planed off and replaced in accordance with Highways Essex instruction. There will be disruption on Brassie Wood from Plots 159 to Plot 169 on this day. Chris (Site Manager) will contact clients individually that live along this part of the road.

Friday 14th June & Monday 17th June
Remedial works to kerbs and preparation for surface/topping layer.

Thursday 20th June
The whole area highlighted will receive the finishing surface coat inclusive of a patch near the temporary bus stop. Again there will be disruption on this day whilst surface works are carried out. Chris will contact the clients individually who are directly affected by this.

Update 19/06/19:
Due to a problem with the facility that manufactures the tarmac, the works will now be completed on Friday 21st June. All affected clients have been contacted by Chris however please be aware that there will be disruption along the entire stretch of road for a further day.

Parking Issues & Covenants

Dear Residents,

Further to the on-going debate about commercial vehicles, parking, restrictive covenants and the enforcement of them, it is important to note that the Community Group Committee has no power or mandate to make any decisions in this regard and it is our Resident Management Company Directors that would need to consider and determine what, if any, action should be taken.

The Community Group has however attempted to engage with the incumbent managing agent to assist in finding solutions to some of the parking concerns that have been raised by residents over recent months. This has largely been where cars and vans have been parked in locations that are unsafe or that potentially block access to emergency vehicles (which has happened on one occasion).

Unfortunately DJC were not prepared to assist given the emotions that often accompany parking concerns and as such the Community Group will look to work alongside the RMC with the new managing agent, once appointed, to consider ways of dealing with issues that cause concern for residents.

One of the proposed approaches is to hold regular ‘town hall’ style meetings which residents can attend and air views on key topics that affect the development so that we can collectively, as a community, determine the best way to deal with any problems that arise, parking or otherwise.

It is important to note that there are indeed a number of restrictive covenants that residents signed up to as part of their property purchase which are legally binding and which all residents are obligated to comply with. The new managing agent will also be asked to assist the RMC in determining the extent to which the covenants should be policed, including the need to provide more clarity in relation to the wording of them. For reference, the covenants can be found here.

Ultimately there is a need to ensure that the community as a whole is happy and the covenants need to work for us, not against us! 🙂

Community & Parish Updates

There was a further Little Waltham Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 4th June and a number of issues were discussed that impact on the Channels Development. You will note from the updates below that the Parish Council, together with City & County Councillors, are all very supportive of residents on the Channels Development and the Community Group has forged good relationships with each of them to ensure continued engagement.

Planning Applications
The Parish Council will formally submit an objection to application 19/00581/REM which proposes the construction of 300 new dwellings in the area on the other side of the bridle path (Zones K and L). This is on the grounds that the design of the dwellings are not in keeping with the surrounding area and more importantly that there is insufficient infrastructure in place to support them, including the lack of a crossing at the bottom of the bridle path on Essex Regiment Way.

Bus Service (51)
The Parish Clerk and Parish Councillor Melanie Williamson attended a transport stakeholder meeting on 4th June and it transpired that First Bus have amended timetables (by increasing the gap between buses) to ensure buses run on time. First Bus indicated that once the new route begins to include the parts of the wider development on the other side of the Radial Distributor Road, the time between the 51 services will increase with the service only running every 40/45 minutes (assuming it’s on time!) rather than the 30 minutes as originally planned, even at peak times.

This is considered unacceptable and County Councillor John Aldridge confirmed to the Parish Council that he would take up this issue on behalf of residents. The Community Group will also write to Councillor John Aldridge on behalf of residents and will again make contact with the organisation (Transport Planning Associates) that was initially secured to arrange the contract with First Bus as we believe that developers have provided funding to deliver a bus service every 30 minutes.

Crossing for Essex Regiment Way
The Parish Council confirmed that it would formally support Councillor John Aldridge in continuing to lobby for a crossing at the bottom of the bridle path to enable safe passage across Essex Regiment Way. Councillor Aldridge believes that residents are essentially ‘land locked’ and does not accept that there are any valid reasons as to why a crossing cannot be installed immediately, even if it is not in line with the planned trajectory for the work taking place. The Community Group will additionally write to Councillor Aldridge on behalf of residents noting the same concerns.

Highways Adoption for Phase 1/2
Residents will no doubt be aware of the poor state of the roads on the Bellway phase of the development. Many of the roads are only a few months old and yet look more like they have been in place for many years. There are sunken drains, sunken paving, damaged and poorly laid paving, pooling of water, weed growth and general poor workmanship. The Community Group has been pushing Bellway in recent months about this and yet we have only received high level generic updates and no evidence of any tangible corrective action.

As a result contact has been made with City Councillor Barry Knight who has raised the issue on our behalf and he formally advised the Parish Council that he will be supporting residents in ensuring the problems are resolved. Key stakeholders within the City Council (Planning) and County Council (Highways) are aware and are currently investigating.