“the council has ignored previously built-on land put forward as alternatives. “

October

26

2 comments

The Echo reports here on opposiion to the District Council core strategy. Onlinefocus readers will see some familiar names:

Key section:

Brian Guyett, chairman of Hockley Residents Assoc-iation, said: ?No less than 67 per cent of the proposed 3,800 additional houses in the district will come from green belt.
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?Also, the two new industrial sites, at Southend Airport and west Rayleigh, will be on green belt. Rochford Council has simply ignored brownfield sites put forward. It is highly inappropriate for the council to claim it is safeguarding the green belt.?
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Lyn Hopkins, chairman of Rawreth Parish Council, said: ?Rochford Council is not safeguarding the green belt. It is only delaying the start of development so that it looks that way. It intends to keep new homes at the orginal sites, despite hundreds of objections. All it has done is put the dates back. We put forward a brownfield site at Bedloes Corner, which could have taken 300 houses. The council said it was unsustainable because there weren?t services nearby and access wasn?t good.?
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Keith Hudson said the council has not ignored any sites put forward and urged anyone with brownfield sites that would be suitable for housing to put them forward.

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  • Actually, counting the indirect use of greenbelt land to resite the Hockley & Rayleigh industrial estates, its 89% of new housing on greenbelt land.
    Is that “protecting the greenbelt”?

  • Lyn is spot on.
    The responses to the communities points by the council do not appear to hold up to examination. I would love to see the document(s) that capture the points for and against Bedloes Corner, but I can not find them in the Evidence Base. Can someone tell me where they are ? The evaluation of sites captured in the Site Allocations document is so sparse in detail that it makes you feel that Councillors have no proof to back up their statements. How is Bedloes further from services than Hullbridge ? and what services are they referring to. Emergency ? No Bedloes is nearer to Rayleigh Weir Fire and Ambulance services, Train ? No Battlesbridge staion is just down the road, walking distance, Major Supermarket ? No Bedloes has ASDA on doorstep and is nearer to both Rayleigh Weir and Basildon. Electricity ? No Bedloes is nearer the Power Station, Sewage ? No the Water Treatment Works is at the end of Beeches Road. Perhaps they mean Airport services ?
    What about access ? Bedloes already has two slip roads that residents already use one coming out onto Rawreth and the other linking into Watery Lane / Battlesbridge. Where as the Hullbridge development is smack bang on the cross roads of Lower Road, Hullbridge Road and Watery Lane which according to traffic surveys is a very busy junction.
    And it is not just Bedloes. At the last CS examination for the developers it turned out that a land owner in Rayleigh Lime House Nursery and Rayleigh Garden Centre offered the sites but again it was rejected.

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