Column: 'Time to make a stand and fix issues in the Hythe'

TWO lessons most of us learn relatively early in life are that putting things off will cost you in the long run and that if people avoid giving straight answers to questions, it's because they are fearful of the consequences of others knowing the truth.

The last five months have reminded me of this, relating to events around Fieldgate Quay at the Hythe.

I’ve visited the area regularly over the last 20 years as a bird watcher.

The derelict areas of it have an attraction as wild habitat, so for most of these last couple of decades, I’ve selfishly enjoyed the disintegration of human infrastructure.

But things have come to a point where that enjoyment at once was compromised by the closing of the public footpath.

Many others whose peaceful self-propelled passage into Colchester from south of the Colne has now been denied are similarly miffed.

In some cases, it has meant that the only alternative travel has been automotive, funnelling into one of the more notoriously troublesome and congested routes into town.

The irony of Covid restrictions has meant that volumes of traffic are not what they could have been, but as most people now appreciate, slow moving or stationary traffic is unhealthy for not only the economy (most man hours spent travelling are unproductive) but also public health.

The cause of the footpath closure can be seen from behind the barriers that now prevent its navigation.

Repairs to a crumbling part of the quayside in Hythe are set to begin this autumn

A cavity has formed right next to the sewage outflow, where the crumbling concrete infrastructure is shedding its protective steel pilings and other reinforcements.

As many a dentist will tell you when it comes to cavities, it's always best to address the problem early, as it will be less costly.

And so it is with heavy industrial infrastructure.

Only the numbers tend to be bigger…

My Wivenhoe Town Council colleague, Shaun Boughton, is a civil engineer.

Shaun Boughton

He knows about these things - the problems, the remedies and the relative costs of each scenario.

He also explains that what can be seen often doesn’t fully betray the full extent of the problem.

It seems clear Colchester Council have at least acted on this home truth.

When we first were made aware of the problem, it wasn’t long before our enquiries were answered with the news reports had been commissioned in December 2020, to give a full, three-dimensional view of the problem around the cavity. Quite rightly so.

This concrete has seen many years of heavy use as part of Colchester’s historic docks, during which spillages of volatile and toxic materials will have been secreted into the faults of that concrete, to be released into the atmosphere at some indeterminate future date.

Read more:

• Delays after Haven Road in Colchester floods again
• Colchester: Call to fix flooding in Haven Road before firms leave
• Hythe to Rowhedge path to remain closed for more than a year

We asked for this information to be shared and for updates as regularly as is reasonable.

We are both on Wivenhoe’s environmental committee and assume a duty of care to all the residents of the river – human and otherwise – who have an interest in the health and hygiene of what flows past us and into the North Sea.

We naturally assumed Colchester Council would honourably share that duty of care.

Insofar as any undertaking to keep us and other interested communities informed is concerned, they have failed.

My inbox has received nothing on this subject of any more substance that what this article has already shared.

We have made increasingly urgent representations to no avail.

Flooded - a car got stuck in the water in Haven Road, Colchester. Picture: Lise Hewitt

An offer, at last, to meet with officers last month was made.

We asked for the reports to be shared to inform that discussion. It was refused.

It seemed clear that officers were only trying to find out how much we knew.

Five months. Nothing. We declined to meet on this premise.

The principle that, as the riverside area is redeveloped, developers help to repair and reinforce the infrastructure to facilitate their projects seems sound.

However, this needs to be done with a holistic and integrated approach.

The alternative, where developers cherry-pick the easiest projects, leaves the more troublesome areas of the riverside neglected and worsening.

The strong get the luxury of investment; the weak get nothing and continue to deteriorate to a point where a full recovery is impossible.

To many, this distribution of privilege is obscene and unacceptable.

And so it seems with the Hythe.

As I am fully aware, councils are manned by lay people.

They can’t be experts at all matters over which they preside.

The Hythe to Rowhedge footpath from above

To be effective, you have to engage with experts and invest your time wisely in that expertise.

Cherry-picking the advice, only acting on what suits your own agenda delivers grotesquely unfair outcomes.

Or, if you are not going to apply expertise, at least be democratically accountable to the people you serve.

As a parent – and indeed with memories of childhood – you eventually learn that you can’t put off admitting your mistakes or misdemeanours.

Better to come clean than be found out, with trust intact, than when it may be too late to fix the problem, or at best more troublesome, as the problem infects other matters while it is unchecked.

We very much hope that (and with no party political agenda assured) the recent interest shown by Will Quince MP in this matter elicits a more accountable approach by the council and its officers.

That we have needed to pull rank on the matter is a regrettable but, we feel, a necessary move, as the home truths of these matters remain in a locked vault.

We hope that, in light of this article, you can take a minute or two (less time than it took to vote last week) to sign this petition and deliver the emphatic message to the council that they are accountable to you, the community they are elected to serve.

Let election pledges now be substantiated.

Sign the petition at chng.it/qgW6tr6M.