The provision of transport infrastructure and services to support forecast development is an essential component of the District's spatial and strategic strategy and accordingly should be identified as a key Core Strategy issue.

Paragraph 4.5.8 of the document states that 'the development of the District is directly related to the availability of the necessary services and infrastructure and the processing of the required permissions. The development of the area needs to ensure that services and infrastructure can be phased to achieve development objectives in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner'.

Further, under the title 'General Development Locations', the document states at paragraph 4.6.23 that 'There is no doubt that improvements to existing transport and other infrastructure will be required to accommodated (sic) these levels of expansion (3,700 dwellings), and the specific location of new housing will need to be carefully considered'.

Notwithstanding these comments, the Preferred Options document fails to specifically address how, when or where required improvements to the district's transport infrastructure and services will be achieved.

The exclusion of this key issue results in the Preferred Options document failing to address how the Council propose to address cross boundary accessibility issues, including proposed new road links, which are essential to the implementation of regional regeneration objects. More specifically, whilst the Southend Core Strategy Submission Document identifies a 'proposed new road link' that will traverse land toward the south eastern part of the district to facilitate regeneration objectives in the Shoeburyness area, the Preferred Options document makes no reference as to how the Council seek to either address the proposed road or any implications for the Green Belt boundary. This is an issue which was raised at the Issue and Options stage but has not been addressed.

On this basis, it is requested that 'Transport Infrastructure and Services' is identified as a key Core Strategy issue and a comprehensive policy outlining how improvements required to facilitate the scale of development envisaged in the District during the period up to 2021 will be achieved in a sustainable manner is prepared.