London Southend Airport & Environs Joint Area Action Plan Issues & Options Paper

We have reviewed your consultation document and have the following comments to make:

2.4 Transport and Accessibility

The proposed closure of Eastwoodbury Lane will be of interest to us, we would like to ensure diverted routes do not add to the congestion on the roundabout of the B1013, as we use a shuttle bus service transferring staff based in office accommodation in Comets Way, to the hospital. We would not want to see significant delays or congestion increasing which would deter staff from using the shuttle bus service and place increased pressure for staff parking.

P21 of the document notes the scale of growth will attract more cars into Southend, the A127 is severely congested now, what solustions are under consideration re creating airport passenger park and ride schemes outside of Southend? This would be an essential element of any development to ensure further obstructions for blue light ambulance access to the hospital do not occur.

The largest of the development options raises concerns re the impact of noise for the hospital, we were not clear re what the exact impact would be and should these options progress we would need to review any mitigation plans to ensure aircraft noise will not impact on our services.

I hope you find the above helpful, any future consultation documents should be sent to my office.