The Rochford District Councillors are having some “visioning ” sessions on Wednesday. This is the chance for the 39 of us to discuss , well, our own future visions of the district.
It isn’t a formal council neeting – so the public can’t watch. That’s probably a pity, though it gives everyone a chance to speak ‘off the record’.
Central government is keen on councils being ambitious, with future aims to strive for, rather than just trying to clean one dirty pavement after another.
Various ideas have already been floated by different councillors, mostly to do with tourism. For example:
Then there’s the question of infrastructure – one possible vision is to concentrate on a getting a new amenity – big or small- from each new housing development that is approved.
Finally there’s the idea of a Rochford bypass – controversial, that one, but a columnist in tonight’s Echo is promoting that idea.
So – what are your thoughts on a vision for our district?
How about visioning a district not overun with flats & supermarkets and the preservation of Rayleigh before it’s too late.
As for a holiday village – I cannot believe you would even think about it ! ( unless it’s on the doorstep of the people who run the planning dept )
Hi Steve.
There’s been two or three of these sessions this week. I won’t go into too much detail, as they were private (though not officially confidential ) occasions. One apparently got quite stormy.
The one I was at was quite useful. It didn’t mention a holiday village, and discussed mainly on how to get the kind of things that you would agree with.
At the moment the aim of the council is to make the district the choice of place in Essex to live, work and visit .
I would say that making our distict the choice of place to live should be our main goal , and perhaps we are not far off it – low crime, decent schools, we just have to stop overdevelopment from trashing the place. As for choice of place to work , well a lot of people might say that they want to work in London for pots of money and spend some it on buying a house here. Others might say that if had more opportunities locally they’d love to work a ten minutes drive (or 20 minutes bike ride!) from their home. Another source of good employment is in the health and education sectors and perhaps that could be developed.
As for choice of place to visit , it would be good to open up more access to the river. But methinks that if some councillors thought they could make us a bigger attraction than Southend seafront. Colchester Zoo, Audley End etc then they are perhaps deluding themselves.