To whom it may concern,

Having Moved to Hockley for the space and countryside 6 years ago, we have already been affected by new building of estates on our boundary. We have lost the dark night skies and now have houses with lights on all the time, in the fist two years we enjoyed watch bats of various sizes dance in the twilight skies. Alas we are lucky to see one or two backs and that is infrequently.

Our own garden/ trees have been affected also by the increase of concrete/drives redirecting the water flow in the area. However that aside.

My main concern is centred on Hockey, where we moved to, and live in particular the areas around references CFS064, CFS264, CFS040, CFS160 and CFS191.

Hockley is a small village and whilst the Spacial Statement looks to keep Hockley as the gateway to the Green Lung with Hockley woods etc. this does seem to be in direct conflict with proposed development sites along the ancient woodlands edges and there seems to be a desire to continue to encroach on this delicate and valuable asset plus our other green field/green belt sites. Hockley woods offers diverse habitat for wildlife and recently increase of butterflies has been noted.

Traffic congestion since we moved has been noticeable in such a short space of time., increasingly so is the the junction of Main Road/ Spa Road/Southend Road which is a constant bottleneck often stacking back to Fountain Road from Rayleigh Walking to/from the village along MainRoad/Aldermans Hill is not a great experience at any time and I feel that the air quality has diminished in recent times as the traffic continues to mount up and as a commuter to walk that route daily is not pleasant. Further development can surely only add to the issues.

The impact on services must also be taken into account. Local Doctor surgeries appear to be full as do Dentist. Obtaining appointments to either services can takes hours if not days to arrange. On a wider scale I am not sure how University Hospital Southend will cope with up to 10,000 more souls from the Rochford area alone plus whatever Southend Borough are planning. The hospital seems under immense pressure - even before COVID.

CFS064 and CFS264
The location is at the end of a private road leading to an active agricultural site and is close to valued woodland and walking/recreational sites/footpaths over a mile from the centre of Hockley.

Access to the private road (Folly Chase) is via Folly Lane which itself is a narrow and increasingly overused thoroughfare, and the entrance is on a tight bend. Folly Lane is not a road best positioned for any increase in traffic at anytime least of all heavy lorries on and off site. The road infrastructure is poor and any increase in road usage would surely cause mayhem and possible failure.

The site is an active agricultural site. With todays emphasis to be more self sufficient in food production to lose this site would surely be short sighted. The Hedgerows offer blackberries and Sloe berries for autumn foraging for many. The impact of any large development would also have a severe impact on the local wildlife and leisure (dog walking/ walking/cycling/horse riding) would be substantial not to mention the pressure on local and ancient woodland and the wildlife. Local deer, badger, bat and fox communities are already under pressure from recent developments down Church Road and Pond Chase - which has already increased road traffic in the area with detrimental affect although was to a larger part good use of a brown field site and worthy of support. Frequent near miss of Horse and car /Lorries can only get worse. The speed and size of vehicles which use Folly Lane and Church Road does need a study and traffic calming measures Now even before any consideration given to more housing needs to be strongly considered.

CFS040
This is surprising that the area is still on the plan. It has recently had planning approved for 2 large private residential properties and surely access would be restricted. However, much as mentioned above Church Road at the proposed site is very narrow and close to the junction with Folly Lane and Fountain lane. Church Road has seen a large increase in traffic not just with the building of over 60 houses in the immediate vicinity in the last 5 years but also affected by use as a cut through from Hullbridge along Lower Road and the residential development that is going on there.

The road is showing signs of deterioration. Repeated reporting of drain failure /water seepage and drain overflows have gone unheeded it appears as no effective repairs /investigations made. It also has a number of stables and is used constantly as access to Bridleways for those exercising horses as well as walkers given the access to the open countryside. It should be pointed out that for the most part there are no footways either and walking is a hazardous undertaking. The road infrastructure doesn't support increased traffic and public transport is poor. The recent new builds (Astors/Church Mews) also appear to ave affected the water run off -water now constantly flows down Church road and floods under the rail bridge when rains. Prior to these builds we would have decent water run onto our property which ran to the ditch at the rear, we have lost numerous trees since.

CFS160

This must be seen as an encroachment on the edge of Hockley Wood and the green belt. This seems to be another such erosion of those green areas that we seem to be keen to keep? The proposed area is quite a way from any of the essential services in Hockley or Rayleigh with limited public transport options and again the High Road which is very busy will incur further traffic adding to alreday high levels of congestion and a deterioration in the air quality. There has already been new estate in that area of Bullwood Hall adding pressure to such as small road access and added traffic to The Rayleigh Hockley Road.

Infrastructure is so severely lacking in this area and further housings in these areas will only have a detrimental affect on the area.