Dear all please tab down to Philips letter to me yesterday and then read the response that I have replied just now. Thanks Adam Dear Philip, Thank you for your detailed email, however, as Im reading through your email I became more and more disappointed. The Late Shift Staff consists of one or sometime two men who clearly live local and are not actually on site until 7-30pm when they pull up in their vehicle and promptly lock the car park entrance then, stand intimidatingly by the exit in an attempt to hurry people along. A friend of mine and I engaged the this car park attendant in conversation on one such evening around 7-30pm and the upshot of the conversation was his laughter whilst saying The car park (on the beach in front of the cafe) will never be open all night! They simply wont allow it! I cant see this feller having any interest in accurately feeding back the numbers of vehicles, on the roadside. I enclose a picture of the view of the line of cars at 9-30pm that same night below. As you can see the 4 car park spaces in the coach park is a laughable option and an insult to my intelligence, and also shows how out of touch your Park Manager is ! As you can clearly see the hazard of having so many cars parked along the roadside creates its own dangers, should a child get killed running through the parked cars Im sure there would be Hell to pay when there is a perfectly good off road space that could be used. This scene by the way is not a one off, this is every evening during the warm summer. Calshot beach has many many bins and I have witnessed these full up with rubbish and a NFDC dustbin man spends a short amount of time every evening changing the bin bags and putting the full bag in a caged vehicle - there is no litter on the beach and I can say that my 3 daughters and I have enjoyed many beach BBQs this summer on Calshot beach till gone 9-30pm. On leaving the beach we deposit our rubbish and go home - maybe Alison Steele needs to do a resources rethink and ask NFDC the manpower difference between emptying full bin bags from fixed bins situated clearly no more than 50 yards apart and the cost of picking up litter discarded due to having no facilities - incidentally I was down Lepe Beach last Tuesday and noted that as the beach full of mums with children off school the litter was blowing around everywhere ! Disgraceful behaviour from parents you may quote, I left the beach as I wanted to go and see Calshot for the same problem. There was no rubbish on the beach where the bins were provided and a heap of waste around a post by the Bluebird Cafe that related to beach hut users on the one way system where there are no such bins only the one outside the bluebird cafe. I understand than NFDC collects from this point every evening. Since the schools have closed last week for summer holidays I am now using Calshot Beach a lot more than I am Lepe Beach as are a lot of my friends, the beach is much better managed - there was a rotten post two weeks ago near where the old big cafe used to be that left a hole in the posts, this was promptly replaced WITHIN 2 DAYS ! This is a fact - so sourcing the correct wood is not a problem for NFDC ! Im afraid,Mr Fawkes, your conversation with Alison Steele amounted to no more than a nice chat over a cup of tea - where you have either been hoodwinked by a trail of excuses and false information or indeed quite happy to simply try and pacify the points that we have raised without actually resolving them. It would appear that as the initial mission was to keep the lower car park open all of the time thus requiring no staff, you have been led along the path of increased attendance for a car park attendant which will cost the council money, when I fact his 7-30/8pm working half hour in the evening can easily be changed to 9-30/10pm with immediate effect. Instead he will conduct some kind of survey counting cars on the road. Apart from that which is less than useless, your conversation with the park manager has delivered nothing ! Its fairly apparent that I would be wasting my time speaking to Alison Steele. However feel free to share my thoughts with her on maybe communicating with NFDC on how she might manage the park more effectively using the lessons learned at Calshot. I assume that as the Council Council are ultimately in charge of the park, and the Park Managers employer that as originally planned you will be taking the matter up at Winchester, because all I can see is a waste of tax payers money and an enforced closure of a public area when there is a shining example of how to properly manage a beach left open all year 24/7 two miles down the coastline in an easterly direction ! Thank you for your continued support, Yours sincerely Adam Stote Sent from my iPad On 2 Aug 2014, at 12:10, Philip Fawkes wrote: Dear Adam, I have now had an opportunity to speak to Alison Steele, who is the Park Manager at Lepe County Park. She was most understanding and helpful, and would welcome discussion with you over any of the points raised. I did intimate at our meeting on the beach the other week that I would not be able to give my unequivocal support for keeping open the top car park, simply because I believe that it could be subject to all kinds of abuse. So, I concentrated on the initiative of having a small area immediately in front of the café left open outside of hours. Mrs Steele pointed out that there is the coach park available for outside hours parking, but she is going to ask late shift staff to monitor the number of cars parking after 8.00 pm in the summer to see whether this extension would, indeed, be necessary. I think it would be unreasonable to expect staff to remain on site until dark in the period May-July; there would be a cost implication. There are five dog bins sited on the Country Park, but it is a matter of policy, aping that of the New Forest National Park, not to put out waste bins any distance from the café . Apparently, research has shown that many people do not use the bins and the message the authorities are trying to get across is for people to take their litter home. Staff and volunteers regularly sweep along the beach and footpaths, and this is proving to be more effective, both in terms of cost, and aesthetic impact, than having designated bins. Mrs Steele has assured me that during the summer months, the sweep along will be on a daily basis; and in fairness, I have observed this litter picking on my two most recent early morning jaunts around Lepe! I did remark on the condition of the car park and, in particular, the stretch of beach in front of the café. The post flood car park repairs are beyond the responsibility of site staff and are being dealt with by HCC property services who have civil engineering expertise. Some of the delay is due to sourcing suitable wood for the revetments to ensure a reasonably long term solution rather than a quick fix. Mrs Steele has been assured that it is only a matter of weeks before work commences. Repairs to the cark park/beach east of the café is earmarked for September, but a conscious decision has been taken not to repair the footpath beyond the car park, simply because it would remain susceptible to erosion from the sea; a fair point, I guess - and there is the footpath along the cliff above. I shall support Mrs Steele in her efforts to hurry along the repair and maintenance to the lower car park and make a point of ensuring that monitoring of parking after 8.00 pm is taking place. Please do keep in touch; and do take up the opportunity to have a word with Alison Steele. Meanwhile, I am just off to Lepe in the hope of finding another rare bird; autumn migration is underway. Aye
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 18:30:35 +0000
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