We’d heard rumours it was possible but it’s on the Echo website tonight:
ENERGY company Eon is to close its site in London Road, Rayleigh, with the expected loss of 600 jobs.
From what we can gather, there’s a meeting for staff at 10 am tomorrow….. and naturally, many of them are furious.
Is there any way of getting Eon to change their mind? And if not, what will happen to the land?
The land will only go one way, to residential developers, more houses and less jobs for local youngsters and the council will not do one thing to get Eon to change its mind! RDC are not concerned about jobs for locals just more residential building so that they can get more council tax to pay for the pay rises of the ‘cabinet members’
The closure of Eon will hurt so many people financially. They were a major supplier of jobs for the local community. Admin, have they been in touch with the council about why they are closing the site?
They have a cost cutting program to save £94m this year
This is major news for our locality. We will all await the details from today’s 10am meeting…
Meanwhile, may I gently remind everyone that St Nick’s job clubs are now up and running? (It turns out our timing may have been even more providential than we could have realised?)
Details at http://stnicksrawreth.blogspot.com/2010/01/st-nicks-job-clubs-now-up-and-runninga.html
Mike: No, Eon have not been in contact with the council.
The EON UK boss Paul Golby did meet with Mark Francois today we were told.
Well I bet they have already been in touch with a few developers to get the best price for the site! I wonder how many houses they could fit on that land?
What we have to consider here is the winners and the losers. Lets not be naive, E-on will be after the most they can make for their land, the developers know they can make lots of cash for new houses on this site! Where does leave the youngsters of Rayleigh trying desparately to get onto the property ladder? As ever in this scenario, not a hell of a chance of getting one of the houses being built.This is the law of supply and demand. How do we change this, well what about this for a scenario, excuse me for using capitals here. IF RDC DECIDED NOT TO GIVE ANY DEVELOPERS APPROVAL FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HOUSING, WHERE WOULD THIS LEAVE E-ON? They would be left with land they could not sell for a good price! I would say that we should all lobby RDC to ensure that the council inform E-ON that any developers will not be given confirmation that they will get approval for building on this land. DOES RDC NEED VOTES FROM RAYLEIGH RESIDENTS, DOES MARK FRANCOIS NEED RAYLEIGH VOTES, HELL THEY DO. Lets start empowering ourselves and not cow-tail to RDC.
Following on from my last comment, the houses currently being built in London Road, if my memory serves, wouldn’t they join up with the current land that E-on would sell thus making a small estate?
E-on must have known months ago that they were closing the Rayleigh call centre, probably before they sold that first parcel of land? Companies make plans of this magnitude far in advance of actually announcing their plans. Admin are you absolutely, positively sure that no one from the planning department has made tentative enquiries about the viability of residential development for this land?
Does the planning department have a duty to inform all councillors that an enquiry has been made even if it is only a tentative one?
Mike , one of the first questions I asked was whether Eon advised the council in advance – and the answer was ‘no’. And I don’t think that the smallish development now happening along London Road has had an involvement from Eon. It’s a totally freestanding scheme.
BUT that’s not the end of the story – I’ve spent the evening combing through the archives, will write something that will interest you tomorrow (must get some sleep now!)
Chris, one other thing, I believe I read somewhere that Eon own other land in Rayleigh? There was some discussion of whether they would sell this land off for development. Does any of the land near Little Wheatley belong to Eon? I am going back about three years here.
Mike, I’m not aware that they do.
Thanks Chris, I will do some research. There was talk of Eon pulling out of Rayleigh some years ago and the rumours were doing the rounds then. I am still uncomfortable about this scenario. Everyone knows how business is conducted and when you have prime land, that is not greenbelt and the council are looking to build in Rayleigh, well things do not happen overnight! Eon will have made this decision awhile ago and some discussions will have been made with other parties. It will be very interesting to hear from the council the date that they were first told that Eon were pulling out. Do we know if any other body would have been told earlier, such as the County Council? I have been around too long to believe what we are being told! Sorry but my view is that someone in the council would have been advised of this, even informally.
I am a little dismayed that this thread should have turned – almost without a blink – from concern about the futures and prospects for lots of people facing unemployment in our community to the rather narrow (and, dare I say, rather less important?) discussion about development of housing.
This is all getting rather boring and self-serving for my taste…
Paul,
I know to my cost just how dreadfully demoralising being out of work can be, even apart from the financial aspect. (11 months out of work in the Thatcher recession taught that to me). Last Wednesday is potentially the worst single day in Rayleigh’s history – at least since the town was bombed in WW2.
If Eon go ahead with their proposal to shut the site down, one way of creating new jobs is to get a new employer to move on site, utilising an existing building and a workforce of experienced customer advisers already in the Rayleigh / Southend area. The chances of thst would obviously be affected by any attempts to use this land for housing.
I certainly don’t want us to lose sight of the original issue though…
This is devasting for the area .It is of course symptomatic of this countries reliance on the service industries, we have lost the enterprise and creativness of our industrial past . I for one will be switching energy providers once this threat is carried out .I would suggest that others in essex might do the same as e on no longer will be adding to the local economy .Let us hope that local employment can be found .The district and county should actively sell the benefits of Rayleigh and district .
I totally agree, the site should be saved for another employer, however at the juncture we find ourselves in with the recession, it would be a brave company to come in and buy the site. I find it so sad that a company that once put itself forward as a friend of the community could do this to so many people. My daughter has had two spells with Eon, inbetween her travelling and her longterm boyfriend worked there for some time, in fact that is where they met. she has also met lots of friends there. An old boss told me back in the late 70s, when I was contemplating leaving a company I had been with a long time, well to me anyway, if I needed a change, just go. He said there is no loyalty from any company to any employee anymore, it is all about the bottom line. Good advice! I also was made redundent once and ended up working in the Channel Islands as there was no work in London or elswhere, so I also know what is going through the minds of the people who face redundency. If the council have any heart for the fight they should insist that this land is sold to an employer. No doubt Eon will be relocating to an area that has high unemployment so that they can pay minimum wages. Unless I have missed something, the council have been silent over this disaster?
Now wouldn’t it be nice if our local councils tried something as positive, after all GSK are ‘only’ shedding 380 jobs. We’ve lost HSBC and Eon call centres with a lot more jobs.
(And I do appreciate even 1 job lost is a potential disaster for that family, I’m not belittling 380 jobs lost).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8508517.stm