Mike Nobes left an interesting comment yesterday about housing figures:
The number of new houses that is planned for Rayleigh will totally ruin the town. We have our own problems to put in order, such as young yobs and anti-social behaviour, before we think of building another 1800 new homes. If the development at Rawreth is an example, we will have the new houses built before the infrastructure to cope with such a huge amount of houses is in place. Where will we get the extra schools, Doctors, better roads, more trains, extra police, the list goes on. I suspect that the bill for all this will fall on the current residents of Rayleigh.
We can not cope with this huge amount of homes. I will vote for anyone who can get this illogical plane overturned and all of the people I have spoken to feel the same.
If the residents need to take this into their own hands to make the authorities see sense so be it.
We’re not going to claim that the Lib Dems – if we had more seats on the council – could stop ALL the development. We had a similar situation back in the 1980s ,when a Conservative administration agreed a plan for all the housing in Rayleigh back then. When the Lib Dems took over it was almost too late to do anything. But -with support from Labour and the Hockley Residents Association- we managed to stop one development in Rayleigh completely (saving an allotment site) and delay one in Rawreth Lane (Laburnum Way) for 5 years.
The situation this time appears hopeless to some people – we have a government forcing us to allow at least 4600 new homes between 2001 and 2021. If we don’t allocate enough land then a developer can put in an application for any old bit of green belt and an inspector would probably let him build there .
But
– the council should make sure that we don’t agree to everything too quickly. There could be a different government in a years time with a different policy.
– the council should do it’s best to get all the facilities we need to go with these homes, and that we get quality places to live, not 4600 mediocre places.
-supporting 1800 houses for Rayleigh without any background information is scandalous. We can hardly believe that the Conservatives have done it. What we can promise is that the Lib Dems will make sure that the figures and proposals are scrutinised very closely and as publicly as possible.
– there’s some way to go yet , these figures now go out for a further round of public consultation.
At least two of the Conservatives who voted to support these figures read this website. They are very welcome to leave a comment here to justify themselves!
Since writing to the Conservative Party with my comments regarding the 1800 new homes to be built in Rayleigh I have received a letter from Mark Francois, our Conservative MP suggesting I make an appointment to discuss my comments, at a surgery. If there is anyone else out there who like me feels very strongly regarding the issue of new housing developments, please let me know, and add the questions you would like me to ask Mr Francois.