From Laura Smith at the Echo:
KNIFE-WIELDING robbers attacked a dad in front of his wife and three young children at their family home.
Three thugs pushed their way past the dad after he opened his front door in Downhall Road, Rayleigh.
The knifemen threatened the man, 37, in front of his wife, 46, their nine and ten-year-old daughters and seven-year-old son. The dad was left minor injuries and the robbers fled with cash and some jewellery.
The dad was treated at the scene by an ambulance crew, but was not taken to hospital.
Det Sgt Simon Dovaston, of Benfleet police, said: ?This was a very traumatic and violent incident for the whole family, with complete disregard shown for the young children who were present. I would ask anyone with information to come forward urgently.?
The thugs were black, about 6ft tall, aged between 20 and 30.
Anyone with information on the raid, which happened at just after 7pm on Tuesday, is urged to call Benfleet CID on 0300 3334444 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111
The BBC report on the robbery is here.
Would this of happened 10 years ago in our town, even 5………….
And all they want to do is create more of this and add more houses, I have never before in my life been stuck in two negative minds
A) I do not want this countries economy to suffer badly and we all be in full recession
However
B) I want the building industry to suffer so that there is no profit for builders, of the proposed new properties to Rayleigh.
Is Rayleigh doomed to become the next BASILDON!
This is a shocking robbery, especially for me, because I grew up in Down Hall Road which is why I posted this here ASAP. And I’m trying to find out more information….
I don’t think something like this happened 5 years or 10 years ago – but if I remember correctly , there was a robbery maybe 25 years ago very close to Downhall Road where a house was targeted and a family were robbed in a comparable way.
Why is the investigation based in benfleet? do we no longer have CID presence in the Palace that is Rayleigh Police station ?
I posted on this website a year or so ago that moving to Rayleigh was a mistake for us and now am going to repeat my remarks.
We moved to the edge of what we thought was a nice quiet town. But what do we have?
1, A council that shows no regard for its residents.
2, A distinct lack of police presence (I have seen the police 4 times on Priory Chase in almost 3 years).
It’s high time this council stopped making the expansion of Rayleigh its priorty and made what really matters it’s number 1 priorty. That is..
1. Put pressure on the Police to reduce hours officers are stuck behind desks and thus creating more hours to do the job that many went into the force for in the first place – to police. A stronger police presence on the streets results in less crime (a simple formula).
2. Develop an infrastructure that can cope with the traffic and populous of this town,
Role on the end of the recession, the day my property breaks even again and the day I move into an area where the council actually considers and values the opinions of the people that put them in office in the first place.
These comments are why we MUST ALL be at the next West Area committee meeting. It is only when the council see us all there that they will take what we want seriously.
Please all that can get there, attend this meeting.
Mike, I am a young property owner at 25, I have lived in Rayleigh all my life and seen the change.
It absolutely breaks my heart what we are heading towards.
I have a number of family members, school friends who feel the same.
Where do I get all the details for the west area committee meeting.
Rgds
Louis DR, the link to all the info on the meeting is
http://cmis.rochford.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Meeting.aspx?meetingID=5456
If you need any more info about the meeting please drop Chris Black an email.
Louis Drive Resident, although you may live in Rayleigh, the residents and Parish Council of Rawreth are fighting these proposed plans too, if you look on the Parish website, http://www.rawrethparishcouncil.co.uk under the heading Core Strategy it will give you a lot of information on the exhibitions that are being held to help inform the public just what is proposed, please feel free to come along to any of those exhibitions, and please spread the word, they are open to all residents, we need to fight these proposals on a large scale, the first exhibition is on Sunday the 23rd of November at Rawreth Village Hall, Church Road, Rawreth between 10am and 2pm, this is two days before the West Area meeting, so people can turn up well informed. Hayley Bloomfield, Clerk to Rawreth Parish Council
Louis Drive resident, it is so heartening to hear residents as young as you concerned about the town you live in. I have only lived here for about 8 years but it is a town worth protecting from the powers that would concrete over OUR fields and open land. These people in power have no regard to how we feel unless we live in their patch! We can only get our message over if there are enough of us at the West Area Committee meeting. Hopefully there will be residents from Rawreth also at the meeting. The council will look at us as a temporary problem and they will get on with building on that huge plot of land between Rawreth and London Road. I did not move to Rayleigh to see that happen. They do not support us in our beliefs so why should we place our trust in them? When I put a question to the council some time ago about going back to their masters and saying we (the residents) do not want our town (the town that we love to live in) to be built into some concrete jungle, the answer was ‘it is going to happen anyway so it is no good protesting’ This is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We have our destiny in our own hands and if that means getting rid of a council that has not got the guts to stand up for our beliefs. so be it. IT IS ABOUT TIME RDC STOOD UP FOR WHAT THE RESIDENTS WANT, NOT FOR THE EASY OPTION.
Mr HUDSON please take note of the comments on this website or the Tory council will not last much longer in this district, if we don’t rid our town of you, Southend Council will!!
Sorry Mr Hudson, I forgot to mention that I have contacts in both Southend Council and Essex County Council and they have both come up with the same message, you (RDC) are too expensive and add no benefit to either the residents or your local party. And the residents have lost faith in RDC.
Is there a mechanism in existence to dethrone the RDC Cabinet with a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE? By that I mean before the next local election, do the Councillors themselves have the power to overthrow the Cabinet with such a vote?
The Tories are far too comfortable in their Ivory Tower, are clearly morally corrupt and it seems about time that they were toppled!
We need a high profile press Campaign or Campaigner (do we have anyone who fits that bill in the District?) to put RDC to shame!
The cabinet is appointed by the leader of the council. There would need to be a vote of no confidence in the leader….
What is going on here has been taken from ‘Animal Farm’. ‘All Councillors are equal but some Councillors are more equal than others!’ Have any of the less equal Councillors considered what this system could do to them at the next election? Maybe it is about time they considered their place in the order of things…..
Can members of the public petition the Council for a Vote of No Confidence in the Council Leader?
In all probabilities the council would have been engaged in informal talks with prospective developers to build the houses in Rawreth. Bearing this in mind we have to let the council know, in no uncertain terms, how we feel about their proposals. We need to send questions to RDC for Councillors to answer on the night of the West Area Committee meeting.
What if anything is Mark Francois MP doing to support his constituents?