1. I am totally appalled by Rochford Councils inability to communicate with the existing Community on the plans to develop our area. In order to comply with your "Statement of Community Involvement (CSI) you need to go beyond just publishing in select media & make sure that all people receive, read and hear what you have to say. In order to be totally transparent, open and honest with your clients - us the Council Tax payers, you should ensure that everyone has the opportunity to understand these proposals before it is a 'fait accompli'. Have you spoken to the community to ask them what they want, and not simply bowed to the wishes of the land & building developers to do as they please because it is the easy option! I became aware of the Core Strategy document in late 2008 by mistake, it is absolutely amasing that nearly two years later very few people still know of its existance and the potential damage this will do to their community. Can you sleep at night in the knowledge that everyone has had the opportunity to put their views forward?
2. Brays Lane is already a very busy road and dangerous, the average speed of the traffic is in excess of the National Speed Limit of 30mph and is heavily used by HGV traffic to and from the Wharf. Large boat carrying lorries typically take-up both sides of Brays Lane to get down to the Wharf, which can cause chaos - are the owners of the Wharf aware of this development and impact on the freigh movement along Brays Lane? Access into and out of Brays Lane is already difficult and dangerous, & additional traffic from this development & the school buses will only make this worse.
3. Obviously any large scale development is going to create a vast amount of traffic filtering out onto an already extremely congested Ashingdon Road & down to the ridiculously busy junction with Hall Road & the proposed additional development of 600 extra houses. How many people or children walking to school along our roads, or ambulances stuck in traffic jams will it take, that results in accidents/injuries or deaths before the Council takes notice of the Communities concerns about the appalling inadequacies of our current road network?
4. Any new development on the either side of Brays Lane will lose the strong defensible green belt boundary which currently exists - it is understood the land owners will develop back to Canewdon View Road once this proposed development is complete. Retention of the land in its current state as green belt, would also mean less impact on the immense wildlife in our green belt for our future generations.
5. The proposed plans put forward by Andrew Martin indicate 175 houses, which is almost double the number of properties in the APDD (100)! It is hoped this proposal is therefore not even considered and promptly kicked out. If it isn't, the integrity of Rochford Council will have to be challenged as there will clearly be implications of bribery at hand.
6. I am not convinced the infrastructure is sufficient to support another 100 houses let alone 175 in Brays Lane, and even less so for the additional 1300 houses to be built in the Rochford area. We don't have enough Doctors, Dentists, school places, shops, open play areas, recreational facilities, public transport especially buses to support the existing community.
7. Even though these plans propose to expand King Edmund - (which is already full) - will it still be big enough for all this proposed housing that is going to be built in the immediate area - 100 East Ashingdon, 600 Hall Road, 175 South Hawkwell, 60 Canewdon, let alone the 500 for Sout East Ashingdon. What consideration is being given to the capacity in our Nurseries and Primary Schools for children in our existing homes, as the new school prosed for Hall Road will not be sufficient for the other development?
8. Will our creaking utility supplies be capable of supporting another 1300 houses - old gas mains, electricity supplies on poles above the ground, water pipes that continually leak, telephone exchange and Broadband capability that dips in and out, drains that overflow when we have a downpore? The fields either side of Brays Lane already flood when we have heavy periods of rain.
9. Although we do need to improve our schools & facilities for our children to grow & progress in life, the surrounding area in which they live must also play a part in how they develop, & the type of people that they become. Ashingdon is currently a reasonably nice green place to live, lets keep as much of our green belt as we can for the sake of our future generations to live in. We must fulfil the needs of local people with minimum impact on their lives, & not just the needs of the development companies who are not a part of this community. Our current MP Mark Francois has a similar view to protect our green belt from over development, and hopefully he will follow through with his manifesto to stop this before it is too late and we lose our green belt for ever.