Unfair, discriminatory two-tier consultation approach adopted

At 'The Executive' on 14 March 2011, the council agreed to "accelerate" the HAAP timetable.

Subsequently RDC contract 2944, "Consultancy - Pre-submission drafts of the Hockley, Rayleigh & Rochford Area Action Plans (AAP's)" details the council's requirements for the next stage of the area action plans for the three towns. In doing so, it created a two-tier process, which heavily discriminates against residents in Hockley.

At that time, all three AAPs were at exactly the same stage, and all included in the same contract, but Hockley is being treated very differently.
 The deliverables for Rochford & Rayleigh are much more open and not prescribed.
 They are also smaller in scope and impact but much more time is being allowed for their development.
 No time was allowed for consultation in Hockley, whereas it has in the other towns, although all three area plans are, of course, starting from the same point of time and the Hockley proposals are likely to have a greater impact.

Why did the council opt for this two-tier consultation approach that discriminates against Hockley and why will Hockley not be consulted on these imposed major changes? Was it just to prevent public discussion in Hockley of an imposed, unpopular policy?

Following a question on this at Full Council on 17 July 2012, the council implemented a knee-jerk reaction. Soon after, on 14 August 2012, it introduced a short 10.5 day exhibition at the Public Library, and on-line. This suggests that our complaint was valid. There was minimal advance notice. I got my notification 4 working days before hand but most did not hear until after the exhibition had started. The entry on the council's website is dated 21 August - halfway through the consultation.

Despite this small concession, Hockley is still disadvantaged compared to the other two towns and the council has never responded on why they adopted a two-tier strategy.

The Council's response to my Formal Complaint: The council stated: "The overarching policies in relation to Hockley centre were determined through the Rochford Core Strategy, specifically in Policy RTC6. The Core Strategy was subject to considerable community involvement, appraisal and examination in public. You submitted representations on Policy RTC6 at the pre-submission stage and as part of the Core Strategy examination you attended and spoke in person at the hearing on 20 May 2010. No decision has been reached on the final contents of the Hockley Area Action Plan."

Comment: Avoids the issue. A non-response which clearly does not address the issues raised about the two-tier approach.

Since then we have discovered that Traffic Assessments have been completed for Rochford and Rayleigh AAPs confirming the discrimination. In an email, Cllr Hudson stated " both the RoAAP and the RaAAP are expected to be released for public consultation in March 2013 when they will contain a similar level of highways implication assessment as did the Hockley Area Action Plan". As the HAAP contained no highways assessment (apart from a single statement that councillors "consider" 3 slips lanes can be added to the Spa Roundabout), Cllr Hudson's statement somewhat bizzarely means that the 2 completed, and presumably paid for, TAs for RoAAP and RaAAP will not be used!