I am writing to register my objection to the building of new housing across sites in the Hockley area.
At the highest level the addition of that many new houses in and around Hockley will change the fabric of the town. We can already see in Rayleigh how the overdevelopment of an urban area can affect a town, in fact we moved to Hockley from Rayleigh for this precise reason; the overstretched local services, constant congestion and noise being the most obvious.
Here in Hockley the proposed building will result in thousands more people in Hockley. We have one trunk road in my part of Hockley, Greensward Lane, which is already heavily congested at peak times, traffic often tailing back from the Plumberow Avenue lights to Greensward School and beyond. How is all this additional traffic going to be managed, not only in the future, but also during the building stage? Greensward Lane is not fit for heavy traffic, it is relatively narrow for a main road, it is already in very poor repair, worn surface, badly potholed. This is only going to make the situation worse now and in the future.
Then there are the vital local services that are already stretched and difficult to access. My children have now left school, however even then the class sizes already exceeded 30 pupils and classes were in cabins. Where is the extra capacity going to come from? Doctors and Dentists it is already very hard to obtain appointments. My surgery does not seem to have space to expand, so where are all these extra patients going to go? Are the developers going to build extra services to support their new homes? Is this requirement included in contracts and are these going to be built first, as developers have a very poor record on delivering on such promises.
Looking at the site, local to us, the one behind Malvern Road, this is on elevated ground. When this area is concreted over where is all the runoff water that is currently absorbed by the open ground going to go? It will run down into the gardens and Malvern Road. Living at the lower end of this road, I see firsthand just how much water there can be.

The noise and disruption caused by what will be a prolonged building phase will make normal living, in what is a quiet area, and in Hockley in general very difficult. This will need to be managed to protect the conditions of the current residents who are paying their local taxes but seeing their environment deteriorate. I am also concerned about the impact upon the environment in terms of nature, wildlife, pollution and the destruction of habitat. Once greenbelt land is used for building it is lost to all future generations. I think the over population and over building of Hockley will turn a desirable area to live into a polluted and crowded place. The proposed development will have a detrimental effect on the health and well being of my family.

My wife and I object in the strongest terms.