From the District Council website:
Wild Woods Day is a popular family event which happens each June in Hockley Woods.
The event offers a range of arts, sports and leisure activities and a focus on ‘green’ themes including recycling, sustainability and protecting the local environment.
In 2013, the tenth annual Wild Woods Day will take place between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 1 June.
More info here.
It’s probably been a looooong time since a leader of one of the political parties came to our district. David Steel stopped off for a photo at Rayleigh Weir in 1983, but we can’t recall any others since then.
However according to Cllr Michael Hoy, the leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, will be coming to Hullbridge and Hockley tomorrow.
Clearly the election there is hotting up…..
We’d like to officially deny the rumour that David Cameron was going to come, but was afraid of getting marooned in Watery Lane!
Watery Lane
There’s a new planning application in:
Planning Application number: 13/00192/COU
Parish: Hockley Parish Council
Ward:Hockley Central
Responsibility:Committee /Weekly ListProposal:
Change of Use From A1 (Shops) to A4/Micro Pub (Drinking Establishments)
Location: 21 Main Road Hockley Essex
You can find more details on the council website here. This is at the former Marie Curie premises.
If you look at the application, the applicant explains that their ethos is to
“Provide real ale for customers in an environment that promotes conversation and social interaction. There will be no lagers , spirits, gaming or vending machines”
As usual, District Councillors should not make their minds up in advance of any planning meeting.
Bullwood Hall Prison in Hockley finally closes its doors this week.
At the moment nobody seems to know what will happen to the buildings and land….
Here’s another blog, from 13 year old Megan Long of Hockley – except this is a video blog on Youtube! Megan is on CBBC tomorrow – congratulations! Maybe a media career beckons…
Here she is on her blog talking about that awkward holiday, Valentine’s Day…. and how she made cupcakes for everyone in her class…
Other highways stuff discussed yesterday included:
Watery Lane – this is almost beyond parody now. We had one business-owner who explained how Watery Lane has been officially closed for flooding for the last 34 working days. Currently the water is 18 inches deep. Sometimes lorries will come through the water when it isn’t too deep, other time they have to drive a van out to collect the stuff from the lorry somewhere down the road. Apparently the collapsed culvert which is causing the immediate problem can’t be repaired by County Highways until the summer
Tescos at London Road Rayleigh – we agreed to spend £7000 on bollards on the grass verge to prevent vehicles parking.
Spa Road , Hockley – County Councillor Bonnie Hart said there was ‘utter chaos’ near Sainsbury’s, and we agree to spend £20,000 on railings
The three entrance points to Barling – we agreed to spend £30,000 on ‘village gateways’, to make it extra clear to drives they were entering a 30 mph zone through the village.
Old London Road , Rawreth. We decided NOT to sopend money on signage stating there might be pedestrians in the road. However Chris Black did get the officers to look once again at lowering the speed limit here.
Popes Walk , Rayleigh We refused a request to remove cobble stones because of anti-social behaviour.
Cycleways and Bus Shelters . We decided not to spend any money on new cycleways or replacement bus shelters.
As the Guardian reports here, Bullwood Hall Prison in Hockley is to be closed by this March.
This is obviously bad news for the staff who work there; we understand some may be offered transfers to other jails or to take voluntary redundancy packages.
It may also have an impact on the District Council’s core strategy. The Bullwood Hall site is a ‘brownfield site’ in the Green Belt. Although we can’t see the District Council giving a reprieve to Rawreth or to Hullbridge ,because the general locations have already been chosen. But this site could conceivably be used in the future, to avoid another site from being selected elsewhere.
Hawkwell Councillors Christine and John Mason of the Rochford Residents Party have published something on their website today about the Hockley Area Action Plan, the “HAAP”:
We are formally objecting to the Hockley Area Action Plan (the HAAP) which is published at the link below.
http://www.rochford.gov.uk/planning/policy/local_development_framework/hockley_area_action_plan/hockley-area-action-plan-haap
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As District Councillors we believe that this plan will have adverse effects on the residents of our Ward, Hawkwell West Ward which adjoins The Hockley Village centre.
We are supporting the Hockley Residents’ Association whose Chair, Brian Guyett has had input into this article.
We would encourage you to read the HAAP and consider whether you personally or your organisation will also object. You might like to think about the concerns we have.
Anyone who either shops or drives in Hockley should be concerned with the District Council’s recently published proposals for regenerating the centre of Hockley which is called the HAAP.
There is the likelihood of a new “medium” sized supermarket of up to 3,000 sq metres (that nearly six times the size of the existing Co-op). There are concerns that a supermarket this large will overwhelm the existing shops and result in less competition and, in turn, higher prices. It is also contrary to the Council’s own experts, who recommended that Hockley should be redeveloped along small, “boutique” lines.
There are also plans for a public square, with an evening culture of bars and cafes, and around 100 new homes. Clearly this will all change the character of the ‘village’ against the wishes of residents.
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This makes 150 new dwellings in Hockley made up of 50 recently given planning permission in West Hockley and the 100 in the Centre. (We thought there would only be 50 according to an election leaflet circulated in Hockley in 2010.) So with the 976 dwellings already given planning permission in the Central part of the District the additional 100 takes the total well over 1000 (1026). There are 326 new dwellings just for Hockley and Hawkwell.
We cannot see how the overall highways infrastructure can cope without major improvements and from what Councillor Chris Black has said in Council there are the same concerns in the West of the District.
Christine and I pledge to continue to campaign for highways infrastructure improvements.
However, the main concern on the HAAP is the impact on traffic and parking. The Council has repeatedly promised that highway considerations would be included in the Hockley Area Action Plan (HAAP) but, in a the last minute U-turn, did not do so arguing that it could save money leaving it to a planning application to pay for this.
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But
Essex County Council, advises that “On a local level every strategic development proposal is accompanied by a transport assessment, the scope of which must be agreed with the Highway Authority. This assessment considers the impact the proposed development will have on the highway network and includes industry standard forecasted growth (TEMPRO) to ensure a comprehensive approach that accounts for present traffic conditions (including any new and committed development) and future traffic growth.”
The Council “considers” that the Spa Roundabout could be improved through the provision of 3 slip lanes and a wider pavement beside the Spa pub. There is no evidence to support this view or whether it is even physically viable. The Council has only allowed £2-300K for the cost of this work, which looks optimistic given that they allowed up to £2M for the same work in the Council’s costings for the Core Strategy.
The Council also proposes to move the Hockley Station car park in to Eldon Way, and build more houses on the existing car park. Whilst this has some attractions, it would reverse much of the traffic flows under the railway bridge and, again, the Council say they have not modelled the impact. So it is not known how this will change traffic flows through Hockley, including extra volumes from all the new housing in the West of the District.
Parking also looks very tight with just 211 places proposed for shopping and 72 for the Hockley Rail Station. The Rail Station Car Park is often almost full with 159 places so how is just 72 sustainable?
The Council states that to be Sound the plan (HAAP) should be prepared based on a strategy which seeks to meet objectively assessed development and infrastructure requirements, including unmet requirements from neighbouring authorities where it is reasonable to do so and consistent with achieving sustainable development.
As stated earlier Essex County Council, advises “On a local level every strategic development proposal is accompanied by a transport assessment, the scope of which must be agreed with the Highway Authority. This assessment considers the impact the proposed development will have on the highway network and includes industry standard forecasted growth (TEMPRO) to ensure a comprehensive approach that accounts for present traffic conditions (including any new and committed development) and future traffic growth.”
As the HAAP is a proposal for strategic development then according to ECC this must be accompanied by a transport assessment, the scope of which must be agreed with the Highway Authority. This assessment considers the impact the proposed development will have on the highway network and includes industry standard forecasted growth (TEMPRO) to ensure a comprehensive approach that accounts for present traffic conditions (including any new and committed development) and future traffic growth.
The Planning Inspector is being asked by us to reject the HAAP and return this to Council with the requirement to await the formal and reported assessment of the strategic effect of such proposed strategic development on Highways infrastructure in Rochford District by ECC.
If you also wish to object then please submit your own by 25 January 2013.
We have added the Hockley Residents Association to our list of links……
At the moment their main concern is the Hockley Area Action Plan…
The Hockley Residents Association has had a long and distinguished involvement in the affairs of Hockley. In fact there was a time when they had more district councillors than the Conservative Party.
They are concerned at the moment about the Hockley Area Action Plan , which was recently approved by the district council. In fact we understand that they have made a number of official complaints. A big issue for them is the traffic impact of what the District Council are proposing in Hockley Town Centre.
From what they’ve asked the council, they understand that Traffic Assessments have been completed for the Rochford Area Action Plan , and Rayleigh Area Action Plan, but not for Hockley…
It will be interesting to see what the outcome of these complaints will be…..
Have any of our readers read this book?
A collection of short stories for children featuring some true characters and some fictional. It features a well known area of Essex called Hockley Woods and many of the stories in the book are based on real events and animals. Tales from Hockley Woods started life as bedtime stories for very young children and slowly the characters took on a life of their own. The children are now grown up but have never forgotten “The Demented Squirrel” and “Old Smeller.”….
We are Liberal Democrat councillors and campaigners in Rochford District.
We want to improve local decision-making and we see onlineFOCUS as a good way of keep residents informed and involved.
Please click here to email us .
Ron Oatham
Trevor Parrett
Bruce Smart
Chris Stanley
Pam Waldie
Elena Black
If you want information on a particular planning application, you can find it on the District Council website here.
If you want to know what new planning applications have been submitted this week, click here.
If you want to report a problem, you can email Lib Dems councillors by clicking here.
There's also an independent website called FixMyStreet. It's very good for reporting minor street problems like holes in the road, grafitti or failed streetlights. You can find FixMyStreet here.
Rochford District Council carries out grass cutting on behalf of the County Council.
If you see a grass verge that badly needs cutting, you can report it
here.
This is the official master document for planning policy in our district! To download it, click here
click here. (2.5mb)
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