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Local Government
Rochford District Council
Rochford District Council
Councillor Michael Steptoe
297 Little Wakering Road
Little Wakering, Barling Magna
Essex, SS3 0LB
01702 219 594
0785 087 1377
297 Little Wakering Road
Little Wakering, Barling Magna
Essex, SS3 0LB
01702 219 594
0785 087 1377
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please CLICK HERE
richard.evans@rochford.gov.uk
01702 318044
01702 318044
Talking with Richard Evans and Mike Steptoe (29th June 2011)
Richard is head of Environmental Services and Mike is Portfolio Holder for the Environment.
At our interview with the Chief Executive (see 9th May 2011) we asked if it were possible to talk to heads of departments and Paul graciously said he would go further than that and set up meetings for us with two of the heads and their Portfolio Holder counterparts. This was the second of those two meetings and we wish to express our thanks to Paul for setting this up and to Richard and Mike for giving their time, and sharing their wisdom and experience. As with other lengthy interviews, we have provided sub-headings to show more clearly the structure of the conversation.
Personal about them both
At our interview with the Chief Executive (see 9th May 2011) we asked if it were possible to talk to heads of departments and Paul graciously said he would go further than that and set up meetings for us with two of the heads and their Portfolio Holder counterparts. This was the second of those two meetings and we wish to express our thanks to Paul for setting this up and to Richard and Mike for giving their time, and sharing their wisdom and experience. As with other lengthy interviews, we have provided sub-
Personal about them both
Rochford Life: May we start with something personal about both of you. Mike, can we start with you? How long have you been around as a Councillor?
Mike: As a District Councillor since 2008; I came in on a bye-election. The incumbent at the time stood down and I came in, so this is my second term and my fourth year.
Mike: As a District Councillor since 2008; I came in on a bye-
RL: So you are a relative newcomer then?
MS: From the District’s point of view, yes, but I had been a Parish Councillor before and I had been then since 1998 or 1999. My involvement with the District includes having been involved with the Standards Committee for quite some time and a Parish Councillor representative.
RL: You’re clearly too young to be retired so how do you manage the time to do the work you do? What is your background?
MS: Well, I’m actually a farmer’s son, born locally in South Hanningfield and I’ve lived and worked in the area all my life. I married a Southend girl and eventually moved down to Barling. I have a business in Shoebury, we have a garage which I run with my wife and we have about ten employees.
RL: But how do you make the time to be a Portfolio holder because I get the impression there’s a lot of work that goes with that?
MS: Yes, I tend to spend one day a week, usually Wednesday, dealing with Council matters and then evenings and weekends. The advantage with being a businessman, with things like e-mails, if things come up I can deal with it fairly quickly and not let things pile up.
RL: So, Richard, what is your background?
RE: Well, I’m an Environmental Health Officer and I hail from Boston in Lincolnshire. My father was a bit of a businessman. I was married in Lincolnshire and then left and came to Southend in 1980, stayed for about fifteen years, then went to Hertfordshire. I’ve been in Rochford for four years so I was able to see the introduction of the new waste contract.
RL: Another one of the people drawn back to Essex. What do you think of it?
RE: I think Essex has got quite a lot going for it. It’s a great place to live.
MS: Yes, Essex has got a vast rich history and the way that it has developed means there is a lot going for the area. The whole area is very diverse.
RL: I notice the description of this division is Environment with Parks, Open Spaces, Woodlands, Recycling and new contracts.
MS: Yes, there is also an “etcetera” that creeps in there that they surprise me with sometimes.
RE: The ‘new contracts’ can be a bit misleading. I think what it is trying to get across is that it encompasses a lot of outsourced work. We’re talking about three major environmental contracts, one for grounds maintenance, that’s with a company called Fountain, and they look after all of our open spaces and we’ve got contracts with Rochford Housing, looking after their grounds, and we’ve then got new contracts with SITA Suez which is a fairly large national organisation and they look after street cleansing and the refuse service. Those contracts were new in 2008.
Recycling
RL: Richard, you must be the recycling overseer.
RE: That’s right. There was a decision taken in 2007 that the Council were going to go for it and we’d been fairly low in the rankings at that stage and they wanted to make a real impact. It was a member group that really pulled it all together with a considerable amount of engaging with the community. It really is one of those projects that without the community being on board, it’s not going to happen. What we pride ourselves on is having a very simple-to-use scheme, so it’s engaging with the public and the simplicity of the scheme that are at the root of its success. We’re up to about 65% recycling this year.
MS: I think the biggest key that I’ve seen has been the communication between the officers and the residents, and keeping the residents on side, because at the end of the day it’s the residents that are doing the work.
RL: That’s interesting because I am a resident and I’m not aware of anyone talking to me and saying what do you think about this. I know it’s likely that I’m part of that great mass of the public who hears but don’t hear, but how does it really work?
RE: We’re going back to 2007 and I wasn’t around then, but basically how it evolved was that it was very much a case of cross party support and us talking together as to what could work, but we did do focus groups to engage with the community, a group in Rayleigh and a group in Rochford, and we altered the detail to what best would suit them, what could we do that they would feel comfortable with? There was a question about affordability naturally, but it was very much geared around the residents because without them it wouldn’t work.
RL: That’s good. I asked because I know lots of people and most of them look blank when you mention the Council.
MS: The public and the Council is about emotion, I think. The public will be aware of the Council when it comes to Planning matters; there’s going to be big emotion when there’s a new road coming through, say, or something else controversial, but what we’ve tried to avoid is becoming controversial, so to turn around what you are saying, perhaps that it is a good thing because we have managed to achieve it without being too controversial, and keeping people on our side.
Cherry Orchard Country Park
RL: Parks and Open Spaces?
RE: Yes, we have a few. Hockely Woods goes back to the Ice Age apparently. I think we’re particularly proud of Cherry Orchard Country Park which is coming online now. It’s now 200 acres with a car park at the Cherry Orchard end. The development of the airport will bring with it an industrial park which will see the highway infrastructure improved, so once they’ve placed the roundabout on Cherry Orchard Way to service that arrangement it will also have a benefit for us and will service the Country Park, which will provide the ideal entrance to the Park. The one we’ve got at the moment is a temporary arrangement. It’s not ideal for large numbers of cars, so when we get that gateway established we can get the rest in. We’re very much in the process of building the park. It was arable land not long ago and so we’ve been doing a considerable amount of tree planting, last year in the order of 33,000 trees. We’ve been really throwing effort at trying to get the routes through to the park organised, trying to look at where we can put car parking and link it in with other assets and I’m thinking now of Hockley Woods. There are a couple of routes through the fields that link into Hockley.
MS: One of the things that is happening is with the electric cables. As you go in at the Cherry Orchard end, the electric cables are going to be altered and we’ve asked if some of the poles can be left so they can become a perch for things like birds of prey, hawks which we’ve seen in the area, and also for putting nesting boxes on. Getting rid of the cables helps from the aesthetic point of view but the poles can have use.
RE: Looking at the Park it’s all about bio-diversity, enhancing the rural landscape, bringing it back to what it used to be. It’s a beautiful valley and we’re very proud of the 300m lake. It’s a long-term project and we have to ask what are the things we need to get done first – the trees are going to take years to grow so we get them established. There are seven or eight woodland areas where we’ve done some planting. Some were done about five years ago which are now well established. Over the last two or three years it’s doubled in size. It would have been a little pointless to put a lot of signs up and then find it expanded. What we’ve got now is something where we’ve reached our vision as far as the size of the Park is concerned. Yes, we have some budget set aside. We’ve been to the Executive Committee and they’ve agreed the Management Plan which will take us through the next five years. That’s going to be very much about putting signs up, making it easy for access for road users and people walking or cycling etc. That will very much be concentrating on park signs, information boards, trying to give people some context. It is a very large project and we try to do it with our own resources which are limited. These things will take time but clearly, from our point of view, the important thing is to get it open and start to get community benefit. We’re very pleased that there is a Friends group that is in existence taking ownership and we encourage that group. We need their feedback on initiatives. We are working with them to address particular points they raise. There will eventually be toilets up there.
(To see a preliminary leaflet and map from the RDC web site, to go to third page, please CLICK HERE
To return to the top of the page, please CLICK HERE
To continue to the second part of this interview, please CLICK HERE
MS: From the District’s point of view, yes, but I had been a Parish Councillor before and I had been then since 1998 or 1999. My involvement with the District includes having been involved with the Standards Committee for quite some time and a Parish Councillor representative.
RL: You’re clearly too young to be retired so how do you manage the time to do the work you do? What is your background?
MS: Well, I’m actually a farmer’s son, born locally in South Hanningfield and I’ve lived and worked in the area all my life. I married a Southend girl and eventually moved down to Barling. I have a business in Shoebury, we have a garage which I run with my wife and we have about ten employees.
RL: But how do you make the time to be a Portfolio holder because I get the impression there’s a lot of work that goes with that?
MS: Yes, I tend to spend one day a week, usually Wednesday, dealing with Council matters and then evenings and weekends. The advantage with being a businessman, with things like e-
RL: So, Richard, what is your background?
RE: Well, I’m an Environmental Health Officer and I hail from Boston in Lincolnshire. My father was a bit of a businessman. I was married in Lincolnshire and then left and came to Southend in 1980, stayed for about fifteen years, then went to Hertfordshire. I’ve been in Rochford for four years so I was able to see the introduction of the new waste contract.
RL: Another one of the people drawn back to Essex. What do you think of it?
RE: I think Essex has got quite a lot going for it. It’s a great place to live.
MS: Yes, Essex has got a vast rich history and the way that it has developed means there is a lot going for the area. The whole area is very diverse.
RL: I notice the description of this division is Environment with Parks, Open Spaces, Woodlands, Recycling and new contracts.
MS: Yes, there is also an “etcetera” that creeps in there that they surprise me with sometimes.
RE: The ‘new contracts’ can be a bit misleading. I think what it is trying to get across is that it encompasses a lot of outsourced work. We’re talking about three major environmental contracts, one for grounds maintenance, that’s with a company called Fountain, and they look after all of our open spaces and we’ve got contracts with Rochford Housing, looking after their grounds, and we’ve then got new contracts with SITA Suez which is a fairly large national organisation and they look after street cleansing and the refuse service. Those contracts were new in 2008.
Recycling
RL: Richard, you must be the recycling overseer.
RE: That’s right. There was a decision taken in 2007 that the Council were going to go for it and we’d been fairly low in the rankings at that stage and they wanted to make a real impact. It was a member group that really pulled it all together with a considerable amount of engaging with the community. It really is one of those projects that without the community being on board, it’s not going to happen. What we pride ourselves on is having a very simple-
RL: That’s interesting because I am a resident and I’m not aware of anyone talking to me and saying what do you think about this. I know it’s likely that I’m part of that great mass of the public who hears but don’t hear, but how does it really work?
RE: We’re going back to 2007 and I wasn’t around then, but basically how it evolved was that it was very much a case of cross party support and us talking together as to what could work, but we did do focus groups to engage with the community, a group in Rayleigh and a group in Rochford, and we altered the detail to what best would suit them, what could we do that they would feel comfortable with? There was a question about affordability naturally, but it was very much geared around the residents because without them it wouldn’t work.
RL: That’s good. I asked because I know lots of people and most of them look blank when you mention the Council.
MS: The public and the Council is about emotion, I think. The public will be aware of the Council when it comes to Planning matters; there’s going to be big emotion when there’s a new road coming through, say, or something else controversial, but what we’ve tried to avoid is becoming controversial, so to turn around what you are saying, perhaps that it is a good thing because we have managed to achieve it without being too controversial, and keeping people on our side.
Cherry Orchard Country Park
RL: Parks and Open Spaces?
RE: Yes, we have a few. Hockely Woods goes back to the Ice Age apparently. I think we’re particularly proud of Cherry Orchard Country Park which is coming online now. It’s now 200 acres with a car park at the Cherry Orchard end. The development of the airport will bring with it an industrial park which will see the highway infrastructure improved, so once they’ve placed the roundabout on Cherry Orchard Way to service that arrangement it will also have a benefit for us and will service the Country Park, which will provide the ideal entrance to the Park. The one we’ve got at the moment is a temporary arrangement. It’s not ideal for large numbers of cars, so when we get that gateway established we can get the rest in. We’re very much in the process of building the park. It was arable land not long ago and so we’ve been doing a considerable amount of tree planting, last year in the order of 33,000 trees. We’ve been really throwing effort at trying to get the routes through to the park organised, trying to look at where we can put car parking and link it in with other assets and I’m thinking now of Hockley Woods. There are a couple of routes through the fields that link into Hockley.
MS: One of the things that is happening is with the electric cables. As you go in at the Cherry Orchard end, the electric cables are going to be altered and we’ve asked if some of the poles can be left so they can become a perch for things like birds of prey, hawks which we’ve seen in the area, and also for putting nesting boxes on. Getting rid of the cables helps from the aesthetic point of view but the poles can have use.
RE: Looking at the Park it’s all about bio-
(To see a preliminary leaflet and map from the RDC web site, to go to third page, please CLICK HERE
To return to the top of the page, please CLICK HERE
To continue to the second part of this interview, please CLICK HERE