The proposal in Rochford Core Strategy for this many houses in the Ward of Hawkwell West is UNSOUND because the vital requirements of PPS12 are not met in terms of sustainability, and, therefore, the location of Hawkwell West (south Hawkwell) should be removed by The Inspector and the allocation moved to an area that will sustain the development.

To summarise: The reasons this development in this location under PPS12 in this location are:-
Travel
Public transport limited
Road congestion due to increased car usage
No room to improve highways
Too far from local shops
Too far from rail stations

Environmental Issues
Complete loss of local character
A semi rural location which is unsuitable for such a large development
There will be a loss of wildlife
There will certainly be a loss of green belt
There will be NO economic, social or environmental benefit whatsoever for the local population

The Core Strategy is UNSOUND because it does not fulfil the principles that are expressly stated in the Core Strategy in relation to the proposal for Hawkwell.

The Core Strategy talks about protecting the character of existing settlements and specifically 'seeks to take advantage of development opportunities that will provide social, economic and environmental benefits'. No such benefits would apply to this location and development would be materially detrimental to the character of the existing settlement in Hawkwell West. It also states 'there is a limit to how much infilling and intensification existing settlements can sustain without their character being adversly affected'. This limit has already been exceeded in Hawkwell West.

The Core Strategy says 'locate development in areas where alternatives to car use are more viable', 'reduce the requirement to travel', and accompany any with nthe requisite highway infrastructure to 'mitigate their impact on the existing network'.

It is not possible to do this in Hawkwell West as there is no space for the development of local roads, especially in Rectory Road, as any development here would increase the requirement to travel, especially by car. Moving on to Public Transport the Core Strategy states that 'planning should be well related to existing public transport where possible' There is just one bus to and from Southend/Rayleigh per hour with no prospect of Arriva providing an appropriate service in the long term.

Finally, such a large scale development would lead to an unwelcome strip coalescence of built settlements which is not in line with Council policy.