I am writing to object to the proposal, in the Rochford Core Strategy, to erect 175 new houses in Hawkwell because this many houses in the Ward of Hawkwell West is unsound. It (the proposal) does not meet the vital requirements of PPS12 (the Governments Planning Policy) in terms of sustainability, and therefore the location of Hawkwell West should be removed by the Inspector and the allocation moved to a sustainable location.

To summarise; the reasons the reasons that development in this location is unsustainable under PPS12 are as follows:
TRAVEL: public transport is very limited, (in fact pretty hopeless), therefore the development will lead to severely increased car usage and the inevitable jams during busy times, (check out Cherry Orchard Way in the mornings). The new houses are also a considerable distance from the shops and the Railway Station and a large proportion of local people commute to London so can you imagine the chaos during the commuter time/school time period? Additional roads may help but we don't have the ability to improve our local highways.

ENVIRONMENT: Hawkwell West is a semi-rural location which is clearly unsuitable for a large development. The loss of greenbelt will result in an inevitable proportionate loss of wildlife, and the character of Hawkwell will disappear with no social, economic or environmental benefit whatsoever. There are NO plusses to this development!!

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, in fact, the development would be detrimental to the existing settlement of West Hawkwell!! It also states that "there is a limit to how much infilling and intensification existing settlements can sustain without their character being adversely affected". This limit has already been exceeded in Hawkwell West. In fact the council is already in arrears with it's legal obligation to provide allotments in the area.

The Core Strategy also says "locate development in areas where alternative to car use are more viable", "reduce the requirement to travel" and accompany any development with requisite highway infastructure to "mitigate their impact on the existing network". There is no space for the development of local roads, especially in Rectory Road, therefore the development will have the opposite effect and considerably increase the requirement to travel, (particularly 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 Rayleigh/Southend per hour, (which stops in the early evening) and no prospect of Arriva providing an appropiate 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.