I write with reference to the above Draft Core Strategy and wish to register my objection to the way the Planning Department is handling the development of Hawkwell especially in and around the Windsor Gardens and St Marys Church areas.

It is obvious that there will always be a "not in my back yard" objection to any redevelopment, but the plan to place four hundred dwellings in this area adjacent to Windsor Gardens Hawkwell is just ludicrous.

1. The area located from the Railway line through to Rectory Road including that of St Marys Church is the last rural open space of Green Belt land in Hawkwell, with pleasant views and many footpaths regularly walked by residents and visitors alike.

2. The area adjacent to the river (the proposed site alongside Windsor Gardens) has many low lying areas which become flooded in prolonged wet winter weather, indeed the Anglian Water Authority has already notified residents in Windor Gardens that the area is prone to flooding due to being the lowest part of Hawkwell.

3. The fields adjacent to Windsor Gardens (the proposed site) are all green belt land and should be retained as such for future generations and not sold off for the benefit of cash hungry developers that do not even live in Hawkwell. With many "Brown Field" sites available within the district and indeed even that of Magees Nurseries behind Windsor Gardens being available it is the Councils duty to use these sites rather than reduce the Green Belt areas further.

4. Massive developments of 400 houses in this extremely rural area will further devastate the natural flora and fauna which is abundant here with the trees, hedgerows and grassland which are encompassed within the scheduled green belt area. Although everyone realises that progress has to emcompass development and development means housing, sensitivity must be given to the immediate environment and with "infilling" most of this housing cuold be accommodated in already developed parts of Hawkwell alongside Main Road (between Nursery Corner and Mount Bovers Lane) and Rectory Road, apart from those of Victor Gardens, Thorpe Road, Mount Bovers Lane etc. and the many other developed areas within Hawkwell.

5. Four hundred dwellings mean a minimum of eight hundred vehicles all entering and traversing Rectory Road to leave the area. Already between 7.30am and 9.00am each weekday there is a tail back of vehicles from Nursery Corner of more than 400 metres with traffic trying to exit onto Hall Road for onward movement to Southend and London. Likewise traffic at Golden Cross and onward in Ashingdon Road and through Rochford is similarly congested.

In closing we the residents of Hawkwell look to you our Local Council to protect our environment for future generations, to protect the rural and peaceful Green Belt areas that this area is so lucky to still have within its boundaries and you the Planning Officers of our Council not accede to outside pressures from greedy developers to cover every green field site in the area with concrete so that we become another Basildon or Southend with designated small "leisure areas" and buildings and pollution rife, congested traffic gridlock and the loss of the already diminishing rural community and amenities we are so lucky to still have at present. Therefore please look again at the development of this small area and only allow building on already "Brown Field sites".