On Thursday 22nd March there’s a significant council committee meeting. It’s the “Planning Policy Sub-Committee” .
The meeting will be discussing results of the public consultation about the future development of our district. (We gave a summary of people’s responses last month – you can find it here )
The meeting will then consider ‘changing government guidance ‘ (ominous phrase, that) and then decide on the next stage in preparing a strategy for future development.
The meeting starts at 7:30 pm in the council chamber in Rayleigh. Full marks to the chairman, Tory Phil Capon , for insisting on an evening meeting so that councillors and residents who work can get to it.
It would be really useful to have a few people in the public gallery watching this one.
I shall endeavour to remake an appointment that evening in order to be there. Why do I sense, as a very new resident of the District, that much is about to change hereabouts?!? It would be good to slightly thin out my opaque ignorance of the current facts!
Paul,
Nothing much has to change in Rawreth. We – Ron and Chris- hope to see future development shared out across our district in an intelligent and fair manner. We don’t want to see Rawreth lose its identity and character – if Rawreth residents wanted to live in a built-up area like Pitsea, Canvey or Grays they would have moved there already.
There are plenty of councillors in the district who would be happy to dump all the housing in Rawreth – by having some people in the public gallery watching them, they will be more nervous about doing so. Next weeks meeting may be very quiet, you might not see much going on, but it will be very useful to have people watching.
You may say that I’m being unfair using the word ‘dump’, but I’m not exactly confident about future developments being high quality. Just look at Coppice Gate . When Wimpey chose a name ending in ..gate they were almost asking for scandal to be named after it, but its difficult to decide which of the disappointments of the Park School site most deserve the title of the “Coppicegate Scandal”:
The Council deciding to build there in the first place in a confidential meeting without consulting residents?
Sport England objecting to the outline application for many months and then withdrawing their objections 36 hours before the meeting?
The road into the site being too narrow, and at least one Conservative councillor voting to give planning permission for this road for political reasons?
The council breaking its promise on when the Leisure Centre would open?
Fewer facilities in the Leisure Centre than originally intended?
Council officers supporting blocks of flats which the County Adviser said had an “awful” appearance?
People buying Wimpey homes not being aware of the planning application for a large supermarket?
Planning officers not including the important condition about ‘traffic numbers not being demonstrably detrimental to the convenience or safety of highways users” in their report to councillors on the Asda scheme.
A senior council officer telling councillors we had no grounds for refusal – when he apparently hadn’t read the outline planning permission that we were referring to?
The inadequacies in County Highways examination of the traffic figures?
The junction into the site not being completed before homes were occupied, in accordance with the outline planning permission?
What we’ve learned from the Park School site is that residents cannot fully trust councils or developers to keep their promises and create quality neighbourhoods !
Chris
An excellent summary, completely agree, lyn hopkins
Can anyone tell me when the next planning meeting is due. If I am able I would like to see just how our local council make their decision that affect us all.
Mike, the next meeting that deals with individual planning applications is the development control committee at 7.30 on April 24th. It’s at the civic suite in Rayleigh – the public are welcome to attend.
If you are thinking about the next meeting to discuss the 1800 houses, I’m not sure when that will be.