At a recent meeting called by local residents, we were appalled to hear of the plans currently under discussion for Hockley shopping centre.

If these plans, including for a large supermarket, go ahead, the heart will be ripped out of Hockley's main shopping street. This is a village, not a town, and large-scale shops are out of character with it.

The small shops which will be left in Hockley will not be able to compete with a large supermarket and so will close, leading to a lack of diversity and local feel.

Furthermore, these plans have not been adequately publicised, as shown by the shocked local people attending the meeting.
A hard-to-find link on your website and notices in local papers (which, along with many others, we do not buy) surely does not count as an adequate consultation of the local population?

We strongly feel that the consultation period should be extended so that local people can have a proper say in the future of their home village.