Here We Go Again?

March

23

19 comments

The Echo has reported on possible proposals in Basildon’s Local Development Plan that could put 900 homes to the east, north and west of Wick Country park in Wickford. This is on the A127 not far away from Rawreth. For those not familiar with this country park we’ve produced a quick map with question marks showing where the houses might go. (Click to enlarge)

wick map

One of the official purposes of the green belt is to prevent coalescence of existing settlements- perhaps that’s a good legal argument against development here.. And thats before you go on to questions of infrastructure. This map does show that the green belt left between Basildon/ Wickford and Rawreth / Rayleigh starts to look a bit thin if you take out “North of London Road” , Michelins Farm plus this land in Wickford…

Chris and Ron, as ward councillors for the adjoining ward, will be asking RDC if they can get us more information.

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  • Seems to be never ending doesn’t it. I saw a report on the news today that Chelmsford Hospital had ambulances unable to discharge passengers for some hours, couple that with the pressure already on Basildon and Southend hospitals who have declared “black alerts” several times this winter and surely it is time the County Council got involved in some of this. They after all are responsible for Highways and should be co-ordinating with the various local councils to ensure that all the infrastructure, roads, health, schools etc. can cope with these proposed increases in population all crammed into a pretty small area. Someone, somewhere, has to start applying some joined up thinking to this lot.

  • Tut, Tut Christine – you will now be accused of being negative , by the people ‘who fiddle while Rome burns ‘ , and let us not forget the + 600 destined for Runwell Rd.

    You are of course right on overwhelming the Infrastructure but the impact will happen quicker than that , 10-15 years of Construction ( materials & workforce ) in a small area Rawreth /Runwell/Shotgate/ Hullbridge / Hockley…………

    Government quotas implemented by a compliant Council Cabinets and approved by a Government Inspectors – their responsibility and liability.

  • Traffic counting gear in place in Exmouth and Teignmouth at the Mo , presumably counting the rat run flows – anyone know if that is RDC / ECC or others?.

  • Brian @ 3 above –
    Still very much alive but , like most things , low profile before the election – and it
    is thousands not hundreds , apparently they wanted a spur road onto the A130 but
    No Go ( strategic highway ). Rumour is they are changing shape of proposed site
    so they can create a spur onto the A127 – which they might get through approval.
    That’s about it for now…..JIM.

  • Another nugget that came up tonight – A formal forecast from the CBI says that we need 240,000 houses , so they don’t understand the governments drive for 700,000
    new homes ? ( I do – Boris wants to expand London to the coast ).

  • Thanks Jim.
    So to be clear, we potentially have the following new houses in/around A127:
    – 1200 in Rochford
    – 800 in Castle Point
    – 900 in Basildon
    A total of nearly 3,000 homes, all emptying on to the Fairglen junction, which can’t cope now.
    Would be nice to know what our council thinks about this and what, if anything, it will do about it.

  • The new A130 section between the A13 > A12 was presumably a strategic link ( for example ) between the new container terminal at Stanford le Hope and Harwich , but
    it did’nt include an uprated Fairglen Interchange for local traffic ( hence the title interchange ).
    Now add in 10 years + of construction traffic all using that link to service :-
    Runwell Rd – 600 ( Chelmsford Council )
    WIckford SE – 900 ( Basildon Council )
    Rawreth Lane – 500+ ( RDC )
    RIE – 230 ( RDC )
    Timber Grove – 90-100 ( RDC potential )
    Hullbridge Rd – 500 ( RDC )
    Blinking Owl – undefined but rumoured up to 2000
    Bowers Gifford – several smaller developments ( Basildon Council )
    Jotmans Farm ( Canvey Way ) – undefined ( Castle Point Council )
    Hockley – 55 ( RDC )
    Each and every one of those Councils has not considered the cumulative impact of
    all that simultaneous Construction ( 6 days a week ) and their reasoning will be that
    Highways are the responsibility of ECC. Not so long ago they were talking about a
    Multi- Million spend at Fairglen ,presumably undertaken over the same 10+ years
    adding even more Construction traffic into the mix ( at the same time they are building a Heavy Ind Estate and Travellers Site on the same corner ( Michelin Farm ).

    To put it in perspective think Saddlers Farm – A127 works but for 10 + years not 3.

  • Jim @13: Just to clarify your figure of 55 for Hockley. That relates to land off Folly Lane only. For reasons best known to them, RDC have never included the extra homes planned for the village centre – expected to be about another 200.

  • The Echo is reporting that ECC are refusing to support plans for 6,000 homes at Dunton until more consideration is given to the impact on the area. May be ECC are at last waking up? Will our county councillors put our case to ECC?

  • Current theory is the people we elect to represent us are not driving the agenda but being driven by the agenda set by the non-elected Technical Officers ( Planners ) – and that is what we are seeing , Officers recommended approval for Countryside.

    And these are the people going into bat against the appeal – they need exposing if
    they ( PLANNERS ) cannot see the road / infrastructure limitations of the chosen area. And obviously Countryside don’t want to see the limitations – shame the Localism Act is but smoke & mirrors .

  • Jim, it could just be that both the professional planners and political planners decide not to defend the Appeal on the North of the London Road Site for a variety of reasons including the cost to the Council apart from the desire to see their Allocation in the CS go through.

    This can be thwarted however under Rule 6 by RAG. (http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/pins/guide_rule_6.pdf)

    This situation needs to be very carefully examined by the Rayleigh Action Group Committee and very quickly.

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