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 …
My advice to anyone involved in this, is to study the small print.
The Hockley Area Action Plan is a good example, Just before Christmas, in response to a Freedom of Information request, the council published their “Viability Assessment”. This disclosed 2 important new facts:
1) The Submission copy of the HAAP incorrectly states that their financial assessment INCLUDES land assembly costs, but it doesn’t. That is a huge whole in the scheme’s financial viability!
2) The same document shows that parking at the station will be more than HALVED from approx. 159 now to just 72! That will put extra pressure on the station car parks at Rochford and Rayleigh, as well as in local housing estates. And this despite all the extra housing in the area, which will no doubt increase demand.
Yet again, there are major failings in the HAAP. Hopefully residents in Hullbridge and Rawreth can learn from this. Good luck!