Jumbo Tower - Colchester

Update

On 29th May 2014 Jumbo Tower in Colchester was sold to local ex? poultry farmer Paul Flatman.
Despite brave and impressive efforts from Balkerne Tower Trust who managed to raise £40,000 or thereabouts in the space of 4 weeks simply by asking they were beaten easily. They are still accepting donations towards the general aims of the Trust.
It will be interesting to see the ideas Mr Flatman puts forward for the tower. Hopefully they will involve some maintenance to safeguard the building while his ideas are progressed.

Best of luck!

Colchester Jumbo Water Tower

This week I climbed the 155 steps to the top of the tower.

It's a bit more than grim inside, it's been graffitied and disresprected in other ways and the pigeons have moved in. It's dark in places on the way up and the bannister rope runs out intermittently.

So why did I do it?

Simply because it may turn out to be my only chance. It's been in the hands of a developer for the last few years and has had several planning applications made. They've failed. But then the idea of a restaurant, a couple of floors of flats and a token museum is a bit much for this building to have squashed in. It has listed building status and occupies a prime spot in the town, visible from miles around. Currently the only occupants are the homeless who take shelter in the feet of Jumbo and the pigeons.

Now it's up for auction again. The owner has ploughed enough of his money into architect fees for failed applications. Clearly any planning application can only fail if it doesn't conform to planning guidelines so it's not an issue of people being precious with their landmarks.
A realistic business plan, one that doesn't alter the structure but does allow everyone to enjoy the building has been put forward time and again by Balkerne Tower Trust. It will mean restoring the tower to it's former glory. It won't mean a  penthouse pad with no parking and a million pound price tag. It won't mean a restaurant in the sky but it will mean access to the top (nearly). Initially there won't be access to the top for disabled people but that's the case with a fair few listed buildings. It's a shame but they simply weren't built in a time when access had to be there.

 

Jumbo is up for auction on 29th May 2014. Balkerne Tower Trust are trying to raise as much as possible beforehand. It is a very real case of David vs Goliath and they need help. Any donations are returnable should they not succeed with their bid.

If you'd like a chance to visit in the future to see the view almost across Essex, to have a look at the proposed museum or just simply because you can, like I did, then please do wander over to the website and donate anything from £2 upwards to help them buy it.

I'll see you up there!

Jacqueline's Tea Rooms Colchester

Beautifully set out 30s 40s tea rooms

newly opened in the town centre. So why visit?

Well,

There's a great atmosphere here even though it's new. It's like sitting in your oldest female relatives living room. There's tartan carpet, Bakelite radio, the correct music discreetly playing and a few tastefully arranged knock knacks. As an added bonus the staff are all in period costume.

But none of us go to tea rooms to look around.

The food has to match the ambience. 

It's called tea rooms and lives up to it's name.

There are 20 varieties of tea and flowering tea alongside it. (other drinks are available). 

While it's relatively basic food it is also extremely good quality and they don't stint on portions. Also lots of the food is labelled 'available as gluten free'

The menu consists of sandwiches and cakes in the main with a few specials.

Salmon and cream cheese highly recommended and the ham is top notch.

 

Afternoon and high tea are available at £9.95 per person.

A place I would return to.

In fact I did-later on the same day to sample the continental chocolate cake and passion fruit cupcake together with flowering tea.

This is one tea rooms that I don't think will need a loyalty card.

Waste recycling Colchester style

Colchester thoughts

In Colchester, UK we have the luxury of having waste collected from our doorsteps.

Not the end of the road and, no, we don't have to take it to the tip.

We have a selection of collections:

Non-recyclable, every week

Paper, every two weeks

Glass, every two weeks

Tin, every two weeks

Food waste, I'll be honest I don't know how often it's collected, I have a composter and I eat what I buy, but there is a special bin provided

Plastic, every two weeks

Garden waste, every two weeks in a heavy duty reusable bag

Paper, glass and plastic goes in bags supplied by the council.

They're plastic bags.

Glass and tins go in a plastic, reusable crate supplied by the council.

So far, so good, so lucky.

The food containers are supposed to be used with biodegradable bags which residents have to buy at a cost of about £1.

The bags, crate, garden bags and food container are all delivered free.

The recyclable items bags and non-recyclable are delivered into our front gardens regularly.

Whether we need them or not.

Now it's time for councils to cut back on costs and waste is one of the areas they're looking at.

I emailed a suggestion that the clear printed bags used for paper and plastics could have the last but one bag printed in red so that the binmen were aware that a new roll of bags was needed. To me this would indicate a need and reduce the amount delivered simply by the calendar.

The simple fact is that people don't use them for recycling. So they're giving bags to houses where there are already three rolls.

Apparently a feasibility study decided that this would encourage people to waste more.

I don't know how.

Maybe someone who reads this could let me know what I'm missing here - please :)

Today's newspaper shows a local Councillor bemoaning the introduction of a charge for replacing garden bags when they're worn out.

Mr Will Quince says that charging for them at £3.64 will affect recycling rates.

He states that the fact that they are free at the moment means that those without gardens are subsidising those without.

I agree but frankly am surprised that they are only delivered to those with gardens. Quite insightful of our council.

He does let us know what happens to the waste, sort of. Apparently Colchester Council gets "compost credits" for every tonne recycled. I don't know about you but I have no idea what I could do with a "compost credit"? Would it be anything useful or would I need 10? 100? 1000?

He suggests that the bags are worn out by being dragged to the dustcart by the workers. Maybe, maybe not.

Surely the bags that are worn out are simply those that are being used. Correctly or incorrectly.

So the people who are recycling are effectively being penalised for doing so.

How about having a garden bag amnesty.

Not the most sexy of ideas but there must be loads of them lying around not being used.

Hey Colchester Council- recycle them!

Whatever is done I know I'm not the only one looking forward to the discount on my council tax bill caused by the savings.

Wombling -Colchester

And because I haven't done it for a while, a little bit of wombling.
And it all adds up to: 5 hats, 1 coat, 1 pair of earmuffs, £2.50, 1 necklace, 1 car park ticket, 1 fake rose and a £25 top man voucher, one tom-tom case, 1 toy.....so far

There's bus stations ......

Grimshaw Architects in Stoke on Trent

No architect? in Colchester

Wombling in Colchester? May update

And it all adds up to: 3 hats, 1 pair of earmuffs, £2.50, 1 necklace, 1 car park ticket, 1 fake rose and a £25 top man voucher.....so far