Object

Representation ID: 2811

Received: 13/12/2016

Respondent: Southend Seafront Traders Association

Legally compliant? Not specified

Sound? No

I am making this representation on behalf of the Seafront Traders Association in my role as Chair of
the association. The Association represents approximately 30 seafront businesses which are all located on the
seafront within the Southend Central Area. I have been a trader on the seafront for over 15 years and own 4 businesses located on Marine
Parade. I have been the Chair of this association for the past 3 years and a member for 15 years. I am also a director of the Southend BID.
Parking and the road network infrastructure in central Southend has been an issue that has caused
much debate within the association for many years. The association meets on a regular basis and the SCAAP document and consultation process has been widely discussed at meetings for the last
few years. The view of the businesses in the association is a unanimous one and has been represented in this form.
feel it is important for the association to be represented at the oral examination as the body represents a significant percentage of the businesses that are located in the main tourist part of
Southend and the scaap area (The Golden Mile as it has been named historically). I have spent considerable time over the last few years working with businesses and the council on
various committees with issues related to parking, congestion and infrastructure. I have spent time at the civic centre with the council's VMS team and have a good understanding of how this works. I have even walked round and counted every parking space in the SCAAP area to the south of the
railway line and can thus safely state that my figures for the parking capacity in this area are far more accurate and significantly different to those published. I have also spent considerable time this summer walking around the car parks on busy weekends
witnessing how the network performs and where problems exist. Sharing this first hand knowledge at the oral examination would be useful I think from the inspector's point of view.
We have significant evidence with regard to the accuracy of the council's vms system, and have strong concerns re the Car Parking Study commissioned by SBC. The oral examination is the best forum to discuss this information as it is difficult to scribe.