Do you know the Fairglen Interchange ? – It’s the place where the A127 meets with the A1245.
It’s an odd place politically, because five council wards almost converge there – the Rawreth wards of Downhall and Rawreth
and Wheatley, the Basildon wards of Wickford Park and Pitsea South East, and the Castle Point ward of St Peters.
So the surrounding area is served by 7 Rawreth Parish Councillors, 3 Rayleigh Town Councillors, 4 Rochford District Councillors, 3 Castle Point Borough Councillors , 5 Basildon County Councillors and 7 County Councillors. That’s 29 councillors in all – not including 3 MPs!
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey electionmap service. Image reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey and Land and Property Services
So you might think that any problems around there could be sorted out – but that’s not the case.
Back at the last West Area committee Rayleigh resident Chris Stanley raised the issue of a lorry trailer that had been left in the layby just north of the interchange for several months. Those laybys are there for a purpose – for example as a place to go when a lorry has a flat tyre. In fact one Castle Point Councillor who actually has a lorry contacted us to point out that when his lorry needed to leave a trailer in a layby on the A13 because of a tyre problem, he was phoned within 2 hours by Basildon Council and asked to move it. So we don’t know why it’s taking so long to move this trailer.
Meanwhile Rawreth Parish Council have already complained about the lorry trailer perched above the roundabout and being used as an advertising hoarding. the last thing we need is a rush hour accident cause by someone looking at the advert….
The District Council is pursuing enforcement action here though there doesn’t seem to have been any result yet.
What’s odd is that the company who is advertising – Dansk Design – has up till now seemed a pretty upmarket brand. Do they think their advert here conveys the right image for their company? Would a rush-hour accident here, delaying hundreds of drivers, boost their image? Does the hoarding give people the subliminal message that their furniture is ‘off the back of a lorry’?
No, I don’t know “Fairglen Interchange”. is it anywhere near Rayleigh Spur?
Who gave it this ridiculous name?
These trailer(s) can be seen in a number of laybys in the area, although my suspicions are that the owners keep moving them about to avoid any enforcement by councils. My view is that they are accident waiting to happen, as they are taking up valuable space in the laybys that could be required by a brokendown vehicle. They should be removed by the council within a short period of time, as I am sure would be the case if I parked my vehicle in a simialr location.
I believe Skee-Tex is another company that uses this method of advertising.
The two trailers/advertising boards that were in the lay-bys of the A1245 have now been moved into a layby on the east-bound A127, just after the Weir. I think they have adverts for Skee-tex and CJs bowling in Hockley. I did wonder if their recent move was related to the discussion on this site.
They really should be removed from the road permanently, they are a hazard, an eye-sore, and surely can’t be legal.
If they are legal then the loop-hole should be closed. If it is possible to get fined for having a “For Sale” sign in the window of your car when parked in a council carpark, there must be something to prevent these mobile adverts.
I notice one of the trailers (the chassis from an old caravan) has no lights or reflectors. If it was a skip outside your house you would get fined for that.
if they were a non profit voluntry organisation that do work with 430 children from the district they would have an enforcement notice issued in 2 weeks on a 5×2 foot sign. But then again they are easy targets. maybe more important is who you know ???
Martin, I remember the words of Ian Edwards, former director of planning at RDC : “The planning laws are like locks on doors – they only deter honest men.”
By the way, did you get my email on December 10th?
We hear that the Dansk Design advert will be gone on or before Feb 22nd…