I wish to raise specific objections to the potential house building around Little Wakering and Great Wakering, covered in the Rochford Spatial Options Consultation:

1. I am concerned at further building along Little Wakering Road because of the adverse impact on drainage and potential for greater flooding. The council will already be aware of drainage issues in Little Wakering and Barling and the measures taken to resolve them. Further housing in the area will add to this unresolved problem.
2. Any new housing must be matched by an appropriate increase in infrastructure - GP's, Schools, Policing, Care Services etc. This is true of even limited housing numbers. Failing to do so will deteriorate the existing services for the community. And the council need to carefully consider the increase in traffic and congestion in the area - along with associated pollution.
3. With Climate Change a very real threat, loss of Green Belt and habitat is a concern. We need to be protecting this land - not seeking to build on it. We need to concentrate any building on brownfield sites. And we need to look at re-purposing commercial sites - which is what is happening along Victoria Avenue in Southend, where offices are being converted into apartments. And with an increase in sea levels expected, why would we be considering building houses on lowland areas where flooding is more likely in the future?
4. We need to ensure the villages of Great Wakering, Little Wakering and Barling retain their identities and remain physically separate from other communities. This will not happen if building takes place which joins us to Rochford, Shoebury or Southend. Eventually we will simply become a part of the Southend municipal borough.
5. The South East is already overbuilt and densely populated - we simply cannot keep building here. Clearly housing needs to be built in areas of the country that are less populated - with incentives for businesses to develop in those areas. This would fit with the governments aims to even up the country and see more investment in the north. Whilst the government may have specified housing numbers for councils, for these reasons I think Rochford District Council must resist them.