My concern here is with the Climate Emergency which is now upon us. These 'plans' do not take it seriously enough.

The traffic situation through Hockley, Ashingdon and Rochford to and from Southend at peak times is a major problem. Nothing in the plans will alleviate the problems. In fact, if all the promoted sites are taken up then the situation will only get worse. We should be looking to reduce even the current levels of vehicles on the roads and this can only be achieved with better alternatives for transport. A lot of the current peak problems through the Ashingdon Road area appear to be caused by parents transporting children to school. We should be encouraging active travel (walking, cycling etc) which will have a number of benefits - better health, less polution, better journey times for those that need to use motorised transport for example. This should be done before any development takes place creating a fully connected network of routes that make it easy, safe and pleasant enough to encourage car users to use them. It is not sufficient for each development to add a little bit of infrastructure as that will not encourage people to use it because users will get dumped in amongst dangerous drivers when the little bit of infrastructure runs out - for a current example look at the shared path along Hall Road that terminates at the railway bridge at Rochford station. How can you expect children to use that for getting to and from school? There are several stretches of cycling infrastructure that I know of that are totally unfit for purpose and must have been designed by someone that has never ridden a bicycle.
I have recently been told that you had the chance to apply for funding for active travel improvement for which you did nothing at all. If that is true then shame on you. Your jobs are to make things better for the residents - it's time to step up and deliver on that.

We have seen a number of abnormal or extreme weather events across Europe this year. This will have a knock on effect to food production and, therefore, the ability to import sufficient for our needs. There is no way we should be using greenfield sites as we will be needing them to make up for import shortfalls. Additionally, in my own garden, there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of pollinating insects. My own very small vegetable plot has seen lower production as a result of the bad weather and lack of pollination this year. We must retain the greenfield sites to make up for lower crop yields and also to provide habitat for the pollinators.