As we wrote recently, Asda have given up their appeal on their first application at the Park School site in Rawreth Lane, Rayleigh.
However we now understand that they are going to appeal on their second application. Presumably their planning consultants told them that the chances of them winning on their first appeal weren’t very good… and that they had a better chance of winning with the second one (which has more space for community uses and no flats).
This news isn’t confirmed in writing yet – we have only heard it verbally- but we will keep you advised.
As I will be moving into one of the new George Wimpy homes to the right of this land in December 2006.
I feel that this proposal would be a better option to go with as long as there was a good amount of parking spaces for cars. If not then this could be a serious problem to all who would be covering the school run, attending the new Rayleigh Leisure Centre and us new homeowners.
As for more space for community use, I don’t feel a local social hall would be a good idea especial if it were to be used late at night for various functions and again the car parking space could be an issue.
At the end of the day this land needs to be developed on now as if left it could end up a much bigger problem for the local residents of the area.
Terry
First of all, it’s nice to hear from someone who’s about to move here, we look forward to meeting you.
There probably is a reasonable amount of space for car parking – but we wouldn’t really know for sure until the supermarket was approved, built and opened. We are actually more concerned about the car parking provided at the new school building (and also whether there’s enough parking space for the housing).
If the supermarket was built , it would have an effect on nearby homes in Priory Chase – almost certainly yellow lines, and obviously a lot more traffic passing.
If Asda pulled out of the whole deal I don’t think any kind of a largeish social hall is likely – nobody has suggested it (until you did!) and there’s no money to build one. Part of the Asda scheme, incidentally would include some small upstairs units for community use – the kind of room that a local club might use for committee meetings etc.
The alternatives to the supermarket proposed are probably a smaller store (bigger enough to be useful for local people, but small enough not to attract lots of traffic or damage our town centres, and a satellite clinic of Southend hospital (useful for outpatient treatments etc|). Both would leave room for the small community uses that Asda included in their second application.
Best Wishes
Chris Black