Dear Sir/Madam,

I live in (WARD), (Southend/Rochford) and am writing to you about the New Towns submission made by Southend Council and Rochford Council.  The submission was for 10,000 new houses at Bournes Green Southend on the border between Southend and Rochford. 

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed housing development in our neighbourhood. While I understand the need for affordable housing in our city, I believe that this project would have a detrimental impact on our community and our City.

First and foremost, the proposed development is simply too large for our area. The increase in population density would put a strain on our already overburdened infrastructure, leading to increased traffic congestion, noise pollution, and strain on our public services.  

Our doctors have more patients than the recommended limits, and dentists are no longer taking on new patients.  Our schools are oversubscribed, and recently, Southend Hospital has had to cut staff due to funding shortages.  As it is, they have had to build temporary buildings in a car park to deal with patients. 

In order for this not to have a devastating impact, the current proposal would need at least four new schools, at least 5 new doctor surgeries, dentist surgeries, and a new hospital.  More importantly, Southend/Rochford and Wakering would also need to have an additional bypass road included and the A127 widened.  This would mean the purchase of homes from the M25 all the way down to Southend in order to make way for the new route, so the loss of tens of thousands of homes for one development.  And would need an extension of both the bus routes as well as the train routes.   And consideration should be given to a community centre, and places of worship. 

We currently experience flooding in the area, and then droughts in the summer.  Our existing combined sewer network is currently under pressure with the developments that have already been approved, all with no additional infrastructure.   We are sceptical that the affordable housing target of 40% will be met as we have seen numerous times that this percentage is drastically reduced shortly after planning permission has been granted.   And given Southend has a waiting list of approximately 1,500 families, this development along with the other developments in the City, far exceed that number.  

We urge you to reconsider the development of this area into housing that cannot be supported without billions of pounds of government funding, and is likely to mean this development is financially unviable.  Instead, I propose that the area is cultivated into a community park for local people reintroducing wildlife that used to be in Southend or alternatively used as a site for a new reservoir. 


Kind regards, 

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