Speech to Colchester Cabinet about Outhouse

This is my speech in the HaveYourSay slot to Colchester City Council Cabinet Meeting on Wed 12 July 2023.  It starts at 16:35 minutes and ends at 20:05 minutes. 

Outhouse LGBTQ+ lobby group based in Colchester

Outhouse, based in Colchester, has total reserves of £911,511 and its income has risen by over 50% a year from 2019 to 2022, as shown in this Charity Commission graph. 

Celebrating Colchester's City Status

Jumbo on the Hill

The people of Colchester are so proud of their one and only hill that they have named it four times: from the south it is Headgate, from the west, Balkerne Hill and, from the other two compass points, it is North Hill and East Hill.

Essex Libraries closure survey

Essex Libraries
Have your say on plans for future library services across Essex
The survey is open till 20 February 2019.

Colchester local plan and Sajid Javid

Colchester Borough Council (CBC) has an ‘emerging Local Plan’ for 2017-2033. It’s a government requirement to have one. New CBC leader, Mark Cory, is holding a listening event about it at the Town Hall at 3.30pm on Tues 7 August. (Previously there was the Adopted Local Plan 2001-2021, an 80-page document that was largely ignored, as far as I can tell.)

My questions for the listening event would be:

Carmageddon hubcap sculpture

Carmageddon – the hubcap sculpture. Is there anyone with artistic inclination among my friends who would like to collaborate with me on making a sculpture? I call it Carmageddon and it is basically a large sphere covered in hubcaps. Thinks of it as a rollerball coming down the road to crush cyclists, pedestrians and any other kind of non-motorised traffic. The sculpture is a protest against car culture, obviously.

TEFL Colchester

• Fresh Beginnings (Migrant and Refugee Support Centre in Colchester) provides practical help to refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers around Essex including free English classes for refugees - six a week: Mon, Tue, Thu, 10.30-12 and 12.30-2 at the Bunting Rooms off Head Street.. 
• Local Quakers are also involved in helping provide free English classes.
• Refugee Action Colchester - on Facebook -  provides one on Wed 10am-1pm. 
• Volunteering with Refugees is an online course to help volunteers understand how they can best support the linguistic and social needs of refugees at www.futurelearn.com.

Stop 350 Mersea

Stop 350 is a campaign group founded in November 2016 to campaign against Colchester Borough Council plans to build 350 new homes on Mersea Island, which equates to an 11% increase in the island's population.

Shrub End by-election 7 Sep 2017

Shrub End by-election following shock resignation on 14 July by Lib Dem councillor Karen Chaplin (citing family reasons). Tory win - and there were 2 Green gains elsewhere in England.

​Colchester Orbital Route Project

​The route is around 13 miles. View it at www.walkcolchester.org.uk. 

Electric Vehicles 18/9/2016 Firstsite

Electric Vehicle (EV) workshop with presentation from Nissan and opportunity to drive an EV: Sunday 18 September at 3pm at Firstsite, meeting hosted by Colchester Green Party. My friend WB writes:

If you want a quiet place don't go to an Essex library

So said the librarian at the Essex County Council library in Prettygate last Tuesday. I expressed my amazement and she gave me a form to fill in: see below...

Air pollution in Colchester

Letter to Essex County Standard, Friday 4 March 2016

"The World is My Country": Heritage Open Day, 12 September 2015

"The World is My Country" exhibition:

Heritage Open Day: Saturday 12 September 2015, 10am to 4pm, at Colchester Quaker Meeting House, 6 Church Street, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1NF

Benefit Cap letter in Essex County Standard Friday 5 June 2015

Colchester has the dubious distinction of being home to the first victims of the new Tory government’s Benefit Cap, as reported by the Daily Mirror on 28 May.

Housing crisis in Colchester and beyond

1. Daily Mirror story about Benefit-Capped homeless family in Colchester
2. Social housing, not social cleansing’ – the case of the Focus E15 Mums

"The World is My Country" Public Meeting Thurs 24 Sep 2015

To co-incide with “The World is My Country” exhibition on Heritage Open Day on Sat 12 Sep 2015 there will be a Public Meeting hosted by Gabriel Carlyle and Emily Johns of Peace News:

"The World is My Country" Sat 12 Sep 2015

Here is the draft web page that I submitted last week to Heritage Open Days. It should appear on the site in due course. Further below are some notes from the Local Meeting for business for worship on Sun 3 May.

Violent crime and its scapegoats

The most depressing discourse, in my view, of the recent Colchester Gazette Hustings¹ for prospective MPs was the debate about crime prevention, policing and personal safety. It was sparked off by questions on two subjects: part-night lighting and the two recent horrific murders in Colchester.

Riots Rebellions and Protests – A Walk around Colchester town

The walk on Sat 2 May 2015, 2pm-4pm, was led by Dorian Kelly and started at Slack Space, Old Police Station, 35 Queen Street, Colchester CO1 2PQ. It was part of janeswalk.org 2015, which is hosted locally by Walk Colchester.  It featured the High Street (Castle Park Memorial end, scene of the Poll Tax riots in 1990) and a speech by John Ball and a song about him (both now on my Youtube channel) and much more. Here is the ad for the walk: