Residents from across the district have come together to support our ‘Save the Mill Hall’ petition after they have discovered they are about to be short changed by Rochford District Council with their community hall replacement.
Plans have pressed ahead by the Conservative administration under the cover of Covid-19 to sign contracts with developers to demolish the Mill Hall and replace it with housing.
The lack of consultation on the project from the outset has infuriated residents as much as it has our Councillors and now the Council are facing a backlash.
Our Councillor Craig Cannell has posted a brief video on our social media channels
If you haven’t signed our petition please do head over to https://signme.org.uk/1784 to add your support.
Rayleigh Mill Hall. I think 15 March is the first time we get to see the actual site plan. So important that we all look at it. Very concerning is the positioning of the new smaller Mill Hall building, so close to our historic Rayleigh windmill.
Three years ago the ‘Issues & Options’ stage of the coming NEW Local Plan was out for Public Consultation. It included a “Call for Sites” schedule ( showing all potential sites ),
it did’nt include either Mill Hall or Civic Suite
Car Park. That means the Public were denied
the opportunity to comment on either / both .
If it is’nt part of the Local Plan it will be classed as ‘ Windfall Development ‘ and not count in meeting New Home targets. So is it even legal ( having not been listed ) ?, or why are the Council promoting Housing over and above already ludicrous targets?. Anybody out there a ‘legal expert’ – advice please.
Looking at the concept sketch, the replacement hall looks a lot smaller – maybe between a third to half the size of the present hall.
The new hall is also built right up against the back gardens of the properties in Bellingham lane – could this cause noise complaints for concerts or party events at the hall? Any resulting restrictions could make the new hall less appealing to people who want to hold events there.
It looks like they are trying to maintain sight lines of the mill as you turn into the site along the front of the proposed new houses, but with the new buildings being so close to the mill is there a risk that we lose views of the mill. Even from Sweyne Park I can enjoy the view of the mill and the church on the horizon, it would be a shame if this was to be lost by constructing a clutter of buildings around the mill.
Judging by the sketch it does also look like some parking may also be lost, particularly if the residential properties have allocated parking – I assume located in the area to the rear of the houses.
On the plus side, the paved “square” in front of the mill might be nice, but only if you can get people to use it, rather than just becoming another skateboard rink. We never really learned how to do cafe culture in the UK, the Government just thought it meant extending licencing hours.
I think I prefer the current set-up, but the town really should do more to promote use of Mill Hall.
Might be good to mention also, that the green area at the side of the WI Hall will also be partly built over with flats, and additional parking spaces. This means that the town beacon and the holocaust memorial will have to be moved, plus a loss of trees and grass. The grassy area currently has seats, popular with residents and visitors.