Another new government announcement is that when a council operates a “Community Infrastructure Levy” on developers (which Rochford will introduce eventually) 15% of the money will be passed to the relevant Parish/Town Council where development is taking place with, apparently, no rules over how this cash can be spent…
Now the elections are over, we can get back into our normal routines again.
One of the issues looming on the horizon is the new housing coming. Especially the housing on the Rayleigh/Rawreth border between Rawreth Lane and London Road and on the Hullbridge/Rawreth border near Watery Lane.
It will surely make the traffic situation worse. But we want to achieve some postives. Apart from providing places for people to live, we want to see new amenities and facilities. To give an example – when the housing was being built over 20 years ago along Downhall Park Way, a resident in Downhall Road said they would be the ‘slums of the future’. It certainly hasn’t turned out like that….!
One aspect of this is to get solid agreements with developers on what exactly will happen. Judging by the latest news from Hawkwell Councillors John and Christine Mason, it’s not going very well with their developments:
You would expect that major developers would put forward a proposal for planning permission a scheme that was pretty much “on the ball” in terms of significant needs such as road closures, construction access, building compounds, change of haul route and new marketing suites etc.,
—–
But according to RDC Officers the people that put planning applications together are then superseded by the operational people who open the site who then see that major changes need to be made hence the problems we are now trying to deal with. The apparent lack of contact between these two groups of professionals seems astonishing.
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As we have said before Members of the Council are excluded from many of these decisions which are taken by Officers of Rochford District Council AFTER planning permission is granted.
We are talking to John and Christine to see if we can get any tips on how to avoid this happening in other areas.
Michael Hoy writes about the latest Hullbridge Parish Council meeting here.
Clearly there were some disagreements on local Hullbridge issues – Michael describes the meeting as backward looking! But on the big issue of the night:
The most important matter, the housing allocation for the 500 houses to the West of Hullbridge, was also discussed. The Parish Council is a consultee on the proposals and responded with the following points, stating the policy;
conflicted with community cohesion
lacked infrastructure planning, re water, sewage & transport
lacked integrated transport planning
was confusing over whether 2015 start or 2021 start (it is very clear that all the documents state a 2015 start so we are not sure why there is any confusion)
==================
The surprise was the Portfolio Holder in charge of the Allocations proposals, Cllr Keith Hudson, suggesting a new access road to the Beeches Road/Watery Lane junction from Malyons Lane. To us this would put Hullbridge right in the middle of a rat run with the traffic now using Watery Lane (plus additional traffic attracted by the better road) using the route through Hullbridge increasing the traffic flow along Ferry Road 10 fold and that along Malyons Lane 100 fold. A mad idea.
There’s a meeting of Hullbridge Parish Council tomorrow night 14th January at 7.30pm.
It’s at the Hullbridge Centre in Windermere Avenue. It’s of course open to the public (even if you don’t live in Hullbridge)
The agenda includes the housing allocation for Hullbridge/ NE Rawreth and also a new logo for the parish.
Full details on the Hullbridge Green Party website here.
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.
It’s interesting that Michael and Diane Hoy can get 100 people to a public meeting in Hullbridge on future development when the District Council can only get 1 ordinary member of the public to the West Area Forum, which covers Hullbridge AND Rayleigh AND Rawreth !
You can read an account of the meeting here, from John and Christine Mason. They mention:
■sewerage at capacity
■creates a new community out of cohesion with Hullbridge
■the development offers youth provision where it is not needed
■the development offers more A1 Retail where it is not needed
■access over Malyons will create congestion
■Watery Lane improvements will be 10′s of £M – economically viable?
■Flooding issues to be dealt with by major engineering offsite in the Rawreth area creating further development
■This site is not viable and nor are the alternatives which suffer from the same issues
■Surface water flooding issues are assessed on insurance claim criteria – not assessed because there are no insurance claims for flooding in green fields
■Tidal reflux in 3 rivers has effect on flooding – will affect Hockley and other areas upstream
Also:
…. the Allocations Submission Document is not sound as the Highways Authority has evidently not looked strategically at the cumulative effect of traffic impacts on the Rochford Core Strategy through the Local Transport Plan because the information quoted by Essex County Council has not been published in the Evidence Base.
From the A Green Read blog:
A Public Meeting is being held on Thursday 3rd January at the Hullbridge Community Centre, in Pooles Lane. The meeting is to start at 7.30pm.This meeting is for residents to discuss and decide what they can say to the consultation, being held by the District Council, about the 500 houses planned for Hullbridge. The Consultation has already started and will finish at 5.00pm on 25 January 2012.It is important that people respond to this consultation based on whether it is “sound” or “legal” The meeting will provide information on these points and assist with questions on the completing the consultation itself.The consultation page at Rochford District Council can be found here.Please come to this meeting and make as many people as possible aware of it. Cllrs Michael & Diane Hoy will be at the meeting to answer questions.
This meeting is very relevant for Rawreth as well – as about half of the “Hullbridge” housing will actually be in Rawreth …
Well, the 50 or so houses in Folly Lane, Hockley were approved.
Ron Oatham proposed an increase in the public iopen space provided, but was voted down by the Conservatives
Chris Black argued that the application was premature, and should have been delayed until after next week’s Council meeting, but he didn’t get much support.
Later on in the meeting Heather Glynn made a good speech which persuaded the committee to allow a martial arts centre at Swaines Industrial Estate, Ashingdon Road, Rochford. This was despite officers concerns about parking.
The Development Committee of the District Council meets tomorrow night – and one of the items on the agenda is an outline applciation for up to 50 new homes at Pond Chase Nursery, Folly Lane, Hockley.
The scheme fits in with the council’s core strategy policy of having 50 new homes in West Hockley. Officers are receommending it for approval.
Find out more here.
At last Tuesday’s meeting the District Council pressed on with their plans for future development.
The six councillors on the sub-committee were all there -
5 Conservatives: Keith Hudson, Heather Glynn, Keith Gordon, Simon Smith and Colin Seagers
and 1 Lib Dem: Chris Black.
When you are outnumbered 5 to 1, you don’t expect to win many votes….
In addition two visiting members came along, Lib Dem Ron Oatham and Conservative Brian Hazlewood.
There were also about 17 members of the public present, mostly interested in Rayleigh Sports And Social Club. One of them walked out halfway, saying ‘this is a waste of time’.
Also there was a full team of planning officers, led by Shaun Scrutton.
The alarming phrases that mentioned a lot more potential housing were all removed. It seems that some of the Conservatives were as concerned as we were. So, for example the wording for ‘Land North of London Road’ was changed from:
The Core Strategy (Policy H2) identifies that the site in this general location should have the
capacity to accommodate a minimum of 550 dwellings during the plan period. A minimum
site size of 20.95 hectares would be required (if 75% of the site was developed at 35
dwellings per hectare).
The site identified in Figure 7 is 38.8 hectares (the gross site area, outside flood zone 3)
which could deliver between 582 and 873 dwellings at a density of 30 dwellings per hectare
on a developable area of 50% and 75% respectively, and between 679 and 1019 dwellings
at a density of 35 dwellings per hectare on a developable area of 50% and 75% respectively.
to
The Core Strategy (Policy H2) identifies that the site in this general location should have the capacity to accommodate a minimum of 550 dwellings during the plan period. The site identified in Figure 6 is capable of providing 550 dwellings at a density of 30 dwellings per hectare, plus a flexibility allowance of 5%, if required.
So the maximum amount of new housing ‘North of London Road’ has been changed from 1019 to 550 + 5%, which equals 578.
Changes were made in similar way for other sites such as SW Hullbridge, which now reads:
‘The Core Strategy (Policy H2 and H3) identifies that the site in this general location should have the capacity to accommodate a minimum of 500 dwellings during the plan period. The site identified in Figure 12 is capable of providing 500 dwellings at a density of 30 dwellings per hectare, plus a flexibility allowance of 5%, if required.
Well, the Conservatives would probably say that everything that came out of the meeting was good, this was effectively their document! But from our perspective :
After a fair amount of discussion, it went through. Heather Glynn was concerned about certain aspects of the plan, Ron Oatham stressed the importance of leisure facilities such as the tenpin bowling.
The Council are sticking to their new policy of forcing the Rayleigh Sports & Social Club to move.
Heather Glynn and Keith Hudson moved an amendment that presumably was intended to calm the fears of the club:
The playing field to the south of the site along London Road should be relocated. A replacement sports field with new ancillary facilities together with a new club house will be required to be provided ahead of any removal of the existing facility so as to ensure the continued and uninterrupted operation of this valuable community facility. The new structure will be required to be built to the BREEAM (Very good) standard thus providing a new, efficient and environmentally friendly establishment which will be of great advantage to the community as a whole and to the operators of the Sports and Social club. It should be located within the green buffer to the west of the site, although the arrangement of the facility should be such that the clubhouse and associated development are positioned adjacent to the residential settlement to the east and integrated into the development. It is calculated that the new club house will be built within 340 metres of the existing location and will be served by a new road. Additionally this facility should be well connected to the pedestrian and cycling network.
Chris Black still objected to the proposal, saying it was being imposed on the club and he would only support a move if it was by agreement. Even in September the council was still staying that the sports pitches should be allocated as open space.
However the Conservatives forced this through.
Well, they went through. Chris Black got an amendment to look at the feasibility of having a through route between London Road and Rawreth Lane but stressed that traffic problems were a big concern in general, that extra development could bring London Road to gridlock and Rawreth Lane not far behind. He pointed out that with the proposals for the Rawreth Industrial Estate, Land North of London Road, eoN and a proposed new employment site near Swallows Nursery, there should be a Traffic Impact Assessment before going any further. This was important not only for Rayleigh residents, but for people living elsewhere in the district who also used these roads.
The proposals for Land North of London Road went through by 5 votes to 1. Chris Black voted against , mainly because of the traffic issue and the Sports and Social Club.
The proposals went through by 5 votes to 1 here as well. Chris Black voted against because of concerns about Watery Lane. The documents said that road improvements would be made, but despite all the thousands of pages of paperwork, there seemed to be no information on exactly what was needed to make the road suitable for all the extra traffic! So there was no guarantee that the necessary work would be done.
They each went through after a bit of discussion. This included the proposed Traveller site near the Fairglen Interchange. There was an amendment agreed to make this a council-owned site.
The whole document goes to an extraordinary meeting of the the Full Council for rubber-stamping. Then there’s a consultation period , and then all the responses go to a government inspector.
UPDATE, NOVEMBER 5TH -Just to make it clear, bearing in mind some of the comments below , we are advised by the council that there is no agreement or arrangements between the District Council and any developers or landowners regarding the Hockley Area Action Plan.
Last week we showed the following figures for proposed housing in the Green Belt:
However the document going to councillors at the moment says these are only minimum figures, the council may allow more houysing if required to meet our five year supply. So if houses don’t get built in one location they may get built in another!
Here’s how the new ‘maximum’ figures look:
That’s an especially alarming situation for Rawreth….. and for anyone who uses London Road or Rawreth Lane…
The overall housing figures for Hockley have already been dropped by 50. The council says “Community involvement has suggested that large-scale residential development of this site would not be appropriate, consequently fewer dwellings are envisaged.” That’s nice for Hockley..
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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