After meeting with Dan, he says:
"I met with Dan, one of the trustees of 5th Billericay The Scouts at their hut in Billericay to speak about some issues facing them.
Sadly, due to the nature of it being a bit of a secluded hut and not in use at every second, they’ve been seeing some anti-social behaviour at the hut and its grounds, with evidence of drug paraphernalia being left about. We also spoke about some damage to the hut and its roof tiles too.
Part of the problem causing this is that a public footpath runs from Greens Farm Lane, through the Scout’s grounds, through Mill Meadows, and down to Southend Road. A simple fix would be to block all access to the car park but that would stop the footpath, and natural the Scouts are very supportive of footpaths everywhere.
A solution could be to change the path of the footpath to begin just next to the grounds, and it looks like historically that is what happened, and then to fence off the hut entirely to prevent any future ASB.
I understand Dan has contacted our local councillors and is looking at possible grants to help with funding too, and I hope that he is successful.
I’m sure that Cllr Andy Barnes, Cllr Martyn Mordecai - Billericay East, and Cllr Andrew Schrader CC - Billericay East and Burstead will do their best to help with this too!
I’m sure a solution that helps everyone can be found."
