Here’s the officer’s reason for refusal on the Makro application:
RECOMMENDATION
5.22 It is proposed that this Committee RESOLVES to REFUSE the application for the following reasons 1 The proposal, by way of the extension of increased trading hours into the quiet of the morning and evening Monday to Saturday, would give rise to further noise and disturbance by way of traffic and the movement of customers to and from the store. No evidence has been provided to allow the Council to assess the ambient background noise levels for the extended hours proposed. In the absence of evidence to the contrary the proposal is likely to result in a loss of amenity to the occupiers of dwellings in the vicinity of the site detrimental to the expectations those occupiers ought reasonably expect to enjoy and contrary to parts (iii) and (iv) to policy PN 5 to the Rochford District Replacement Local Plan (2006).
Page 67
If you are interested in the planning applications that are coming up next week, you can download the full 70 pages of officers reports here.
The FIRST I heard about MACRO’s plans for extended opening hours was via your June 2008 Newsletter. My property is adjacent to MACRO’s carpark and loading bays. Why wasn’t I notified by a formal council planning application notice as any extension of opening times would directly affect me! Thankfully this application has been blocked – for now at least?
I would like to add that my neighbours and I already suffer the nuisance of so called “joy riders” using the MACRO car park to practise “power slides” etc… Can we impress upon MACRO to properly secure their car park after hours please?
In addition the store tanoy and alarm systems are intrusive enough already!
Please please can the Council keep local residents properly informed in the future!!
Temple Way resident.
TW Resident,
Register with the person below and you will be sent planning application notices that affect you.
Kay Tinson
Clerical Assistant – Planning Policy
Rochford District Council
01702 546366 ext 3501
I am heartily fed up of being abruptly woken at 05:00 hrs by MAKRO’s alarm going off – I assume as a result of incompetant employees triggering the alarm when entering the building? This alarm went off at 05:00 hrs this morning and again at 06:00 hrs. The alarm also regularly goes off at approx 23:00 hours! Can somebody please confirm what Makro’s opening and delivery hours are supposed to be please?
This is a regular oocurance and for those of you lucky enough not to be in ear shot sounds like an air-raid siren going off! it’s not subtle! Surely a silent alarm linked to the local Police station would be more considerate?
We are also regulary disturbed at all hours of the day & night by the stores PA tannoy system which also gets transmitted outside of the store – presumably to alert staff &/0r delivery drivers etc?
As if the nuisance caused by ASDA isn’t enough…
SILENT NIGHT….
Admin I’m really hoping that you can help with this Christmas wish….
Merry Christmas to MAKRO… the Rawreth Lane store’s completely OTT Air-raid type alarm went off c. 23:00 hours on Christmas Night and didn’t stop until 07:00 hours on Boxing Day…(8 solid hours)
And a Merry Christmas to our Essex POLICE and also local Community POLICE… Having had no sleep and sure that my ears were close to bleeding I called Essex Police at 05:15 Hrs on Boxing Day and was put through to the “Control Room” (clearly not a local “control room” as the operator seemed unsure about where Rawreth is!).
The operator in the “Control Room” then abruptly advised me that the Police DO NOT RESPOND to audible alarms unless they are automatically routed directly to the control room AND the Police no longer keep a key holders list for alarmed business properties.
The operator eventually confirmed that the Police had not been called out to Makro i.e. the alarm system at Makro does not automatically go through to the Police “Control Room”…
I also left a detailed message on Rayleigh Community Police Officer PC Wyn Sharp’s mobile phone at c.05:30 Hrs on Boxing Day. His voice mail promises to get back to callers within 24 hours. I’m still waiting for an acknowledgement today @ 12:00 Hrs (December 27th)
And a very Merry Christmas to Rochford District Council Noise Abatement Enforcement Team… The Essex Police “Control Room” operator very helpfully informed me that a) by law MAKROs alarm should have stopped after 20 minutes and b) gave me the telephone number of RDC’s 24 hour Noise Abatement Enforcement Team as it is their sole responsibility to deal with noise pollution &/or public nuisance issues i.e. Not the Police. This number has been ringing out since 05:30 hours on Boxing Day, not even an automated message giving advice or an answer phone facility to enable callers to report incidents.
Not a 24 hour service then in fact absolutely no service and no use at all to anybody 🙁
In addition to this RDC’s advice on their website is completely useless and out of date because it advises you to contact the Police who have a key holders list! (NOT!)
To cap it all we were rudely awaken once again at 05:55 hours this morning by the MAKRO alarm. This is actually a very common occurrence early morning and late at night because the hapless MAKRO employee’s seem completely incapable of setting the alarm without setting it off.
This in addition to the odd external Public Address system barking orders at delivery drivers etc…
So to recap…
* MAKROs (very very loud) alarm was sounding for 8 hours overnight on 25/26th.
* The POLICE don’t respond to audible alarms regardless of the preach of the peace.
* RDC’s Noise Abatement Enforcement Team are unreachable when you need them most
Leaving…
* Us the Tax Paying public completely helpless…
I want MAKRO to be prosecuted for the anxiety and misery they caused local residents on 25/26th by the alarm going off for 8 hours and the Enforcement Team to earn their salary and to do some actual Enforcing!
What on earth is the point of having an alarm system at all if the Police ignore it?
Words fail me. 🙁
I’ve forwarded your comment as an email, to RDC, I look forward to their prompt response, either by email or as a comment here.
Thank You for your intervention Chris and also Thank You to PC Wyn Sharp who has just visited me and my neighbours in Temple Way in response to my voice mail message left on his mobile phone in the early hours of Boxing Day.
PC Sharp has just been to visit the manager of MAKRO however the manager of MAKRO has denied having any externally audible alarm system!!!
The manager has admitted to having the external PA warning system and PC Sharp has advised the manager to turn the volume down on that.
But where does that leave us with the audible alarm system that MAKRO deny having?
PC Sharp can’t enforce this noise abatement nuisance issue but has at least made a start by raising the issue with MAKRO. I sincerely hope that RDC Enforcement Team can take some legal action against MAKRO…
TWR, I would not be able to state exactly where the noise of an alarm was coming from on Christmas night but I was also woken by it in the early hours and I live in Rawreth Lane. You are welcome to quote this when talking to RDC’s NAE Team.
Just been out talking to some people in Laburnum Way about this:
First house – heard the Makro verbal alarm and heard one or two other ‘house alarms’
Second house – heard the Makro verbal alarm for intruders in the car park and another high-pitched alarm which didn’t sound like Makro. Wouldn’t have been able to sleep if the bedroom had been in the back.
Third house – heard the Makro alarm – ‘goes off every Xmas’
Thanks again Chris, I’ve just been talking to the Manager at Makro.
He has now admitted to me that MAKRO have to have an external audible alarm for insurance purposes! But why he didn’t admit this to PC Sharp seems odd?
He also went on to admit that his rostered key holders were called out several times on the night of 25/26th. Again why this wasn’t mentioned to PC Sharp is a mystery…It is obvious to me that he hasn’t been given the full story by those called out i.e to what extent the alarm was going off and the level of nuisance etc…
He is getting various engineers to look at the problems before New Years Eve.
He was quite forthcoming during our chat but failed to apologise and seemed more concerned about his key holders being disturbed and not getting a decent Christmas break!
I’ve told him that the matter has been reported to RDC…
Is that Makro’s alarm going off again, at 8pm on 28th December? If it’s this audible on Hambro Hill, I feel very sorry for those of you closer!
I went out at 8:30 pm to hunt for the sound …. I could only hear it faintly near the Downhall Road / Hambro Hill/ Hullbridge Road junction.
Couldn’t hear it all near Makro – so it wasn’t emanating from there unless it had stopped by about 8:40 .
I can happily confirm that on this occasion it wasn’t MAKRO’s alarm.
However I’m still trying to get through to RDC’s Noise Abatement Enforcement Team to report the disturbance on 25/26th – the number is still ringing out…
Happy New Year!
RDC’s Martin Howlett (Principal Environmental Health Officer) replied to my complaint on 30th December. He is going to speak to MAKRO.
He has advised me that the Council has an out-of-hours emergency messaging service provided by Careline (01268 527317).
However the MAKRO alarm went off again twice over New Years Eve and early hours of New Years Day. These disturbances has also been reported…
There has recently been a regular occurrence of so called “joy riders” using MAKRO’s carpark in the evenings. These sound like high powered cars racing around and skidding etc… All accompanied by ridiculously loud “music” booming out.
This has been reported to Essex Police and also to the duty manager at MAKRO – who amazingly seemed oblivious to the problem! De ja vu?
Not sure who the local community police officer is these days but would be grateful if Admin could please pass this on for the officer to monitor the problem…
Thanks for this information. I have just passed it on to Steve Joynes, the Rayleigh Neighbourhood Constable. His contact details are:
email rayleighnpt@essex.pnn.police.uk
telephone Telephone: 101 ext 490126
web page http://www.essex.police.uk/my_neighbourhood/rochford_district/rayleigh/rayleigh-45.aspx
TWR, Please keep us advised on this, either by comments here, email or phone.