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Local Government
Rochford District Council
Rochford District Council
Cllr Mrs G A Lucas-
14 Somerset Avenue
Rochford
Essex
SS4 1QA
01702 543 142
07990 526 422
Rochford Life: What are the main areas, as far as you are concerned, that the Council has power to affect in Rochford?
Gillian: Everything.
The Work of the District
Yes, we deal with everything, well the majority of things that go on, but not everything. For example, the roads. We don’t have money to build new roads. A lot of what we do is regulated by County. We have the best refuse collection and recycling in the country. We’ve won an award just recently because the system we use, after a lot of hard work, really works. Apart from that, the Council has its fingers in most pies, and these days we’re very much working with partners. Rochford Council gets involved with every sort of organisation in the area, and we all come together and work as one on health and education and all those sort of things.
RL: How is it therefore, that so many people don’t seem to know what goes on in our area?
Gillian: I don’t know. Some might say it is apathy.
Councillors not paid
People say some very odd things about the Council – it’s the Council’s fault but when you know about it you think how can it be? Some people think Councillors do it for the money but we don’t actually get paid; we get expenses but being a Councillor costs you money, there’s no two ways about it. I don’t know why people don’t know about it. Maybe it’s just one of those things where people say, Well I’m not politically minded, but you don’t have to be; it’s about the area you live in.
Planning
Planning is the most controversial area of the Council, I would say, because most people don’t think about it until it’s in your back yard and then it’s a massive tragedy as far as most people are concerned. I think that’s a way that Rochford Council is different from most others, in that every single member of the Council is on the Planning Committee that sits once a month, whereas on the Review Committee there are just eight of us of which I am one.
The Future of Rochford
Massive changes are going to happen in the District over the next few years. We have a Core Strategy, which the Government said we had to have, and they told us how many houses we have to build in the next twenty five years and it’s a lot of houses. We try where possible not to use up Green Belt and in the Core Strategy we have used less than 2% of Green Belt. Sometimes people ask me, Why did you let that land go for development, but we can’t stop a landowner selling their land.
RL: When there is big housing development, is there any requirement for a variety of housing?
Gillian: Yes, the Government specify that in any large building area, a third of those properties must be social housing. They would pepper-pot them throughout the site so you don’t get enclaves of social housing, and we desperately need social housing. A lot of people are against it but at the end of the day there are people who need it and it’s as simple as that. If there is a big development, the developer has to give something back, like a school if it’s needed; it’s called a 106 Agreement.
RL: There is a great deal to learn.
Councillors’ training
Gillian: Oh yes, because if you don’t know how a Council is run, the economics of it, where the money comes from, how it is spent and what rules and regulations there are... we have masses of training courses we can go on but, to be honest, the best way that I’ve found is to go and sit with the Officers and ask them to explain things in layman’s terms, starting with money and working out, because we get inundated with figures and if you don’t understand them you can’t make an informed decision for anybody about anything really; you’ve got to know the basics at least. It’s a huge learning curve that never ends and a week doesn’t pass and you think, I don’t know about that., so we do courses all the time. Rochford have just won an award for the way in which we do our training courses.
You get a mentor to start you off, to ease you along if you like, because one day you are just an ordinary person walking around the streets and then you have an election and the next day there you are and you are expected to take phone calls from all sorts of people and help sort people’s problems out and you know nothing to start with. I hope I start by bringing common sense into the situation but initially I don’t know the rules and regulations – can I do this, can I do that? – and you don’t want to go making people promises that you cannot keep.
RL: So what sort of things do people ask of you?
Gillian: Anything and everything.
Questions you get asked
Housing is always a big one, you know, I want to change my house, I’ve got four children and I live in a two bedroom house; I get a lot of that. We get a lot of people phone up and they have financial problems and don’t really know where to go and how to sort it out. We get just about everything, you know, even people parking on the path and so on. Sometimes we have people who get a bad disability and they don’t know that they don’t necessarily have to move. They can get a grant to get their home converted because the government give us quite a large grant to do that. So it really is just about anything and everything, why don’t the buses run more often, my milkman hasn’t been today, what can I do? Or, my son’s in prison and I don’t know how I go about getting to visit him. Or it may be, I want to build a house and I have a bit of land; where do I start? There is always an answer that is for them and if we didn’t have so many people with those queries there would hardly be a need for so many Councillors.
I like it that people feel they can phone up and speak to me and ask me about very personal things in some cases. We have a huge elderly population in Rochford and people forget that. Over 60% of people living in the ward of Rochford are over pensionable age now, and being able to help them and put their minds at ease is quite satisfying. I hadn’t been a Councillor a month when the phone went at ten o’clock at night and it was a man who was literally at his wit’s end with trouble from next door, and you think, what can I do at ten o’clock at night, and I have to be honest and I said to him, I can’t do anything tonight; however first thing in the morning I will, and luckily we were able to get it sorted for him very quickly. I also have a very good working relationship with the police who can help me in a variety of ways. The Inspector we have at the moment is really brilliant and really cares about Rochford.
Feelings about Rochford
I am born and bred in Rochford and apart from about five years away, I’ve always been here.
I’m passionate about Rochford. I love Rochford. I think we are so lucky to live here, frankly. I know people talk about all the crime and antisocial behaviour but, in fact we have a very low crime rate around here. I’ve spoken to so many people recently who are moving into Rochford from Southend and places like that, and they all just love it because, face it, you drive up South Street and it’s a beautiful street, Whenever we have anyone to stay who are from not around here, they drive up South Street and go, Wow, fancy living here. When you use it every day you don’t notice it, but we are lucky to live here and I am passionate about Rochford and it gets me very annoyed when people start to put it down. We don’t have any more problems than anyone else and indeed a lot less in some things, and crime is one of them. And do you know we live longer than a lot of places in the country. We’re about number five on the long-life list for the whole country, on a survey that the Halifax did, even though we have this ageing population.
RL: Gillian, that’s been really excellent. That’s been an amazing oversight with much insight into not only Rochford District Council, but Rochford itself. Thank you so much.
And so we drew the conversation to an end but I had the feeling it could have gone on very much longer. Yet again, I found I had been listening to someone who was all-out full of enthusiasm for Rochford, a lady available to the people - a real education!
To return to the first part of Gillian’s interview, please CLICK HERE
Gillian: Everything.
The Work of the District
Yes, we deal with everything, well the majority of things that go on, but not everything. For example, the roads. We don’t have money to build new roads. A lot of what we do is regulated by County. We have the best refuse collection and recycling in the country. We’ve won an award just recently because the system we use, after a lot of hard work, really works. Apart from that, the Council has its fingers in most pies, and these days we’re very much working with partners. Rochford Council gets involved with every sort of organisation in the area, and we all come together and work as one on health and education and all those sort of things.
RL: How is it therefore, that so many people don’t seem to know what goes on in our area?
Gillian: I don’t know. Some might say it is apathy.
Councillors not paid
People say some very odd things about the Council – it’s the Council’s fault but when you know about it you think how can it be? Some people think Councillors do it for the money but we don’t actually get paid; we get expenses but being a Councillor costs you money, there’s no two ways about it. I don’t know why people don’t know about it. Maybe it’s just one of those things where people say, Well I’m not politically minded, but you don’t have to be; it’s about the area you live in.
Planning
Planning is the most controversial area of the Council, I would say, because most people don’t think about it until it’s in your back yard and then it’s a massive tragedy as far as most people are concerned. I think that’s a way that Rochford Council is different from most others, in that every single member of the Council is on the Planning Committee that sits once a month, whereas on the Review Committee there are just eight of us of which I am one.
The Future of Rochford
Massive changes are going to happen in the District over the next few years. We have a Core Strategy, which the Government said we had to have, and they told us how many houses we have to build in the next twenty five years and it’s a lot of houses. We try where possible not to use up Green Belt and in the Core Strategy we have used less than 2% of Green Belt. Sometimes people ask me, Why did you let that land go for development, but we can’t stop a landowner selling their land.
RL: When there is big housing development, is there any requirement for a variety of housing?
Gillian: Yes, the Government specify that in any large building area, a third of those properties must be social housing. They would pepper-
RL: There is a great deal to learn.
Councillors’ training
Gillian: Oh yes, because if you don’t know how a Council is run, the economics of it, where the money comes from, how it is spent and what rules and regulations there are... we have masses of training courses we can go on but, to be honest, the best way that I’ve found is to go and sit with the Officers and ask them to explain things in layman’s terms, starting with money and working out, because we get inundated with figures and if you don’t understand them you can’t make an informed decision for anybody about anything really; you’ve got to know the basics at least. It’s a huge learning curve that never ends and a week doesn’t pass and you think, I don’t know about that., so we do courses all the time. Rochford have just won an award for the way in which we do our training courses.
You get a mentor to start you off, to ease you along if you like, because one day you are just an ordinary person walking around the streets and then you have an election and the next day there you are and you are expected to take phone calls from all sorts of people and help sort people’s problems out and you know nothing to start with. I hope I start by bringing common sense into the situation but initially I don’t know the rules and regulations – can I do this, can I do that? – and you don’t want to go making people promises that you cannot keep.
RL: So what sort of things do people ask of you?
Gillian: Anything and everything.
Questions you get asked
Housing is always a big one, you know, I want to change my house, I’ve got four children and I live in a two bedroom house; I get a lot of that. We get a lot of people phone up and they have financial problems and don’t really know where to go and how to sort it out. We get just about everything, you know, even people parking on the path and so on. Sometimes we have people who get a bad disability and they don’t know that they don’t necessarily have to move. They can get a grant to get their home converted because the government give us quite a large grant to do that. So it really is just about anything and everything, why don’t the buses run more often, my milkman hasn’t been today, what can I do? Or, my son’s in prison and I don’t know how I go about getting to visit him. Or it may be, I want to build a house and I have a bit of land; where do I start? There is always an answer that is for them and if we didn’t have so many people with those queries there would hardly be a need for so many Councillors.
I like it that people feel they can phone up and speak to me and ask me about very personal things in some cases. We have a huge elderly population in Rochford and people forget that. Over 60% of people living in the ward of Rochford are over pensionable age now, and being able to help them and put their minds at ease is quite satisfying. I hadn’t been a Councillor a month when the phone went at ten o’clock at night and it was a man who was literally at his wit’s end with trouble from next door, and you think, what can I do at ten o’clock at night, and I have to be honest and I said to him, I can’t do anything tonight; however first thing in the morning I will, and luckily we were able to get it sorted for him very quickly. I also have a very good working relationship with the police who can help me in a variety of ways. The Inspector we have at the moment is really brilliant and really cares about Rochford.
Feelings about Rochford
I am born and bred in Rochford and apart from about five years away, I’ve always been here.
I’m passionate about Rochford. I love Rochford. I think we are so lucky to live here, frankly. I know people talk about all the crime and antisocial behaviour but, in fact we have a very low crime rate around here. I’ve spoken to so many people recently who are moving into Rochford from Southend and places like that, and they all just love it because, face it, you drive up South Street and it’s a beautiful street, Whenever we have anyone to stay who are from not around here, they drive up South Street and go, Wow, fancy living here. When you use it every day you don’t notice it, but we are lucky to live here and I am passionate about Rochford and it gets me very annoyed when people start to put it down. We don’t have any more problems than anyone else and indeed a lot less in some things, and crime is one of them. And do you know we live longer than a lot of places in the country. We’re about number five on the long-
RL: Gillian, that’s been really excellent. That’s been an amazing oversight with much insight into not only Rochford District Council, but Rochford itself. Thank you so much.
And so we drew the conversation to an end but I had the feeling it could have gone on very much longer. Yet again, I found I had been listening to someone who was all-
To return to the first part of Gillian’s interview, please CLICK HERE
This is the second part of the interview with Gillian Lucas-Gill. To return to the first part please CLICK HERE
To return to the Rochford District Council front page, please CLICK HERE
To go to Jill’s second Interview in 2011, please CLICK HERE
To see Jill’s 2012 Planning interview please CLICK HERE
To go to Jill’s second Interview in 2011, please CLICK HERE
To see Jill’s 2012 Planning interview please CLICK HERE