There are quite a lot of items at tonight’s meeting of the District Council Development Committee. However 2 of the items were:
35 London Hill, Rayleigh- build 3 houses in the garden. This is a very unusual , large , sloping garden bordering on Rayleigh Mount and the Windmill, largely hidden from the road. Ward councillor John Griffin moved refusal with a lot of help from other councillors, and it was indeed refused, on the grounds of (roughly) , effect on the Rayleigh Conservation area, lack of information on drainage, and being detrimental to the residential amenity of neighbouring properties.
The Lawn, Hall Road, Rochford. Install 6 rows of solar panels. This was recommended for refusal by officers on the grounds of being in the Special Landscape Area, and effect on the listed building. However ward councillor Keith Gordon successfully moved approval.
London Hill item – different reasons given in last nights Evening Echo – “concerns over extra traffic” / “detrimental effect on the landscape”
and “Cllr Griffen (Tory for Wheatley Ward)raised fears about loss of greenspace”.
How did Cllr Griffen vote in respect of the hundreds of houses and Traveller Site (in Wheatley Ward)? ie:- extra traffic/detrimental effect/loss of greenspace- on a much larger scale.
Jus asking how he voted!!!!.
John Griffin is a fairly new councillor, before mentioning his voting record we will need to check carefully. Regarding this application, Cllr Griffin’s main pnt was that this application was inside the Rayleigh Conservation Area. The garden is one of Rayleigh’s secret gems.
Chris – don’t get me wrong, I am all for defending our heritage / status quo ,just
seems to me that RDC are very selective when it comes to protecting greenspace/traffic volumes and negative impacts……………..but I think most people are now aware of that.