Canewdon Parish Council

Residents reminded to plan ahead this summer, with more works taking place whilst road network is quieter.

As the school holidays get underway, Essex residents are being encouraged to check the roads before they travel. This is so they can make sure their journeys aren’t affected by roadworks and delays.

During the school holidays, peak time traffic is less busy due to fewer commuters and changing travel patterns.

This means it’s a good opportunity for Essex Highways to complete as many repairs as possible, particularly in traffic sensitive locations.

With more traffic management, such as temporary traffic lights, likely to be on the network, planning routes ahead of time means journeys will be less impacted by delays.

Traffic management is vital in helping to keep highways workers and members of the public safe while works are being carried out.

Essex Highways is committed to prioritising repairs to roads that have the most potential safety issues.

When it comes to planning repairs and maintenance, the patience and co-operation of the public helps works to be carried out smoothly and on time.

Staff are often subjected to abuse because of frustrations at repairs being carried out. In many cases CCTV is in operation and operatives wear bodycams which enables the recording of any incidents. This helps to keep our staff and members of the public safe.

Cllr Lee Scott, Cabinet Member for Highways Maintenance and Sustainable Transport, said: “The summer is a wonderful time to plan days out across Essex or go on holiday – this county has a lot to offer, from coastline to country parks and historic cities to working farms. I urge the people of Essex to make sure their plans aren’t disrupted by encouraging them to check the roads before they travel, making sure journeys are less impacted by potential delays.”

To check where the latest works on the network are, visit the Highways Information Map: https://www.essexhighways.org/interactive-maps-and-live-travel-information/highways-information-map.

Women and girls asked about their perception of safety in Essex.

A new online map that women and girls in Essex will be able to use to highlight areas they feel safe or unsafe has been launched in Essex.

The map is being rolled out across the county jointly by Essex County Council, Essex Police and the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex. The project is supported by Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and researchers at Nottingham Trent University

Residents can access the map here.

Similar maps have been used across the country and give women and girls the opportunity to drop a pin on a particular area that they have felt unsafe and state why.

While the map is open for anyone to use, the primary audience is women and girls over 13-years-old.

This initiative follows extensive research by the council’s Safety Advisory Group that shows 16% of women involved felt unsafe in our towns and cities during the day and 47% felt unsafe at night.

This latest initiative is part of the partners’ collective commitment in making the county safer for women and girls and also helping them to feel safer too.

The map can be accessed on a desktop computer or on a phone or tablet. Users can drop a pin to a specific location and write why they felt safe or unsafe there. Other users will be able to see this data too.

All of the data collected will be used by partners to inform their work going forward.

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex Roger Hirst said: “Nobody should feel unsafe in their own community, but the sad fact is that many women and girls do. We have to change that and together we are committed to making our communities be safer and feel safer for women and girls.

“We are already using the data we collect around reported incidents to inform our prevention work but this new platform provides a much stronger, direct route for women and girls to tell us where they feel unsafe so together we can act. The site is designed to be interactive so you can vote up areas already highlighted or highlight a new area for others to see. It is all strictly anonymous but the information you give will make a difference.

“It is up to us all to ensure everybody in our society can live their life in safety. We know women and girls are more likely to be the victims of harassment, stalking and abuse. We also know certain areas create a sense of fear, but it doesn’t have to be this way. We can change it, we can make our communities safer and it is up to all of us to make that happen.”

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Levelling Up, Communities and the Economy at Essex County Council, Councillor Louise McKinlay said: “Everyone in Essex has the right to live their life free of fear and free of harassment.

“While police and partners in the county are working hard to make the county safer, we know many women and girls in the county still feel afraid in some areas, whether that be at day or night. This is not acceptable.

“This initiative will be valuable in finding out where in the county women and girls feel most unsafe and why.

“We have already done a lot of work to understand how women in particular perceive safety in the county, but this map will allow us to go one step further by gaining insight at a hyper-local level. We can then address the issues raised and bring about change.”

Force tactical lead for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) at Essex Police, Chief Supt Claire Talbot said: “Reducing Violence Against Women and Girls remains a top priority for us at Essex Police and there is already so much ongoing activity across the county to help reduce these offences.

“The Commonplace Platform will be a vital tool to support this work as it will help us to understand, in more depth, the needs of the communities we serve, especially the concerns of women and girls. We don’t want to assume we know where the problems areas are, we want to give the public the opportunity to tell us.

“This will then assist us in focussing our efforts in terms of visibility and reassurance as well as crime prevention. We are committed to working as part of the Community Safety Partnership to help people, encourage them to engage with us and to keep them safe.”