5.6 Do you have any other issues/comments you would like to raise

I'd give priority to the present centres

No

I would like to see large developments have more trees/vegetation built into the design to attract wildlife and soften the stark building lines such as the flats in Italy which have trees built into their design so that they look like living gardens. Also where new flats are built they should have roof gardens.

Establish a public art strategy that is diverse and representative of the town, led with advice from the cultural expertise in the town spearheaded by the Arts Council NPO's Focal Point Gallery and Metal.

Other retail centres such as Shoebury and Southchurch should be considered in this area of the local plan and soft and hard landscaping introduced to the areas.

I have read the Plan and commentary with great interest.

I think the document is clear and well presented and pinpoints most of the Opportunities and Challenges the borough faces.

One comment: the development at Fossets Farm (Southend United) is only mentioned in one paragraph. I understand the uncertainty over the development. However, if the development does go ahead it would be substantial and affect the thousands of locals who regularly attend the matches and other events. I feel it is an oversight not to include the potential of this development in a greater fashion. The additional comment about the impact on the High Street is worrying to me. In my opinion the High Street needs to evolve and not be protected by undermining developments elsewhere. Surely the developments need to complement each other?

As the town only has one significant sporting location in the borough it would be helpful for the council to get behind the development, as other Councils and public bodies have up and down the country. I would welcome the Plan to show a more positive view of our one and only publicly supported sport/team.

the text and slides attached, introduces the Metrotidal Lower Thames Orbital and forms the Metrotidal Limited submission and response to the Southend Local Plan consultations, to support the aims and objectives of the local plan while offering an alternative approach to deliverability with a view to generating greater benefits. Deliverability is likely to extend beyond the local plan period, so the proposals raise a question of safeguarding to enable delivery as part of the long term objectives of the Southend 2050 plan.
Set out below are some initial responses to the 12No. Local Plan section headings of the consultations:-
Our Vision
Metrotidal Limited supports the key messages in Box 1 of the Southend 2050 plan.
Spatial Strategy
1.4 – Metrotidal Limited supports Option 3, i.e. Option 2 + working with neighbouring authorities. The Metrotidal proposal would mitigate any local loss of greenbelt and greenfield land by providing much improved access to greenbelt and greenfield land on the routes of the rail orbital and Sustrans cycle networks across the Lower Thames and Medway estuaries. Furthermore, the new connectivity supports an integrated and co-ordinated approach to existing and new housing developments across the Lower Thames Estuary while providing the resilience of alternative routes across the estuary and into Central London.
Housing
2.1(b), 2.3, 2.4, 2.7. The Metrotidal proposal supports both increased housing supply at public transport and town centre locations including land released by redevelopment of the Southend Victoria terminus as well as the potential of the “Sector D “ Fossets Farm, Garon Park and Bournes Green Chase area, with access from Southend Airport Station.
Securing a Thriving Local Economy
3.7 The Metrotidal proposal creates an orbital line for the Lower Thames Estuary, bringing together new markets and opportunities for Southend in terms of outward connectivity and inward investment. The Medway Towns are currently up to 2-hours away but at a distance of only 20km. The Metrotidal Lower Thames Orbital brings South Essex and North Kent within a 30 minute journey, creating a single economy larger than Manchester.
Promoting Southend as a Major Resort
4. The Metrotidal proposal supports Southend as an exemplar coastal tourism destination within the UK. The sea defence system becomes itself a major tourist attraction. The proposals include a high-quality marina development with a cruise liner terminal and Thames Clipper ferry landings all served by a Thames Estuary Station, enhancing Southend as a gateway for national and international tourism. The marina, cruise liner terminal and ferry landings complement the original development of the pier as a tourist gateway to Southend. The integrated transport connections, including the rail links to Southend Airport, Ebbsfleet and Central London, provide an attractive tourist offer and radically improve access to the Southend conurbation.
Providing for Vibrant and Attractive Town Centres
5.6 The Metrotidal proposal supports the regeneration of the town centre for the 21st century with a new Southend Central underground station linking the existing lines while releasing the Southend Victoria terminus site for redevelopment.
Providing for a Sustainable Transport System
6.6 The Metrotidal proposals promote green-growth across the Lower Thames estuary by including a floating solar array and wind turbines to generate renewable energy for the railway orbital and tunnel M+E systems along with an efficient data storage and distribution system.
Facilitating Good Design and Healthy Living
7.5 The Metrotidal Lower Thames Orbital provides ready access to the wide open spaces of the Thames and Medway estuaries.
Providing Community Services and Infrastructure
8.4 The Metrotidal proposals contribute to improved broadband infrastructure and connectivity.

Enhancing our Natural Environment
9.3 As noted above The Metrotidal Lower Thames Orbital provides ready access to the wide open spaces of the Thames and Medway estuaries.
Planning for Climate Change
10.1 The Metrotidal proposal protects the full length of the Thames tideway upstream with a system that is only 8km long.
Ensuring that the Local Plan is Delivered
12.5 The Metrotidal proposal for integrated infrastructure enables overall costs to be reduced while increasing the net economic benefits. Municipal Railway Bonds and other innovative funding initiatives replace conventional public/private sector funding sources to restore the co-ordination of railway and land development that had contributed to the growth of Southend in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Firstly I do not believe that the Councillors in Southend have produced these documents, they appear to be similar to a previous town centre plan where the consultancy firm involved had public consultations, one of which I attended. They had a fixed agenda and the way the meeting was targeted any local concerns were conveniently ignored so that their conclusion was the one put forward. So having confidence in this latest effort is very low.

Firstly your maps show quite clearly how much open space there is left in the Borough, and constructing 24,000 houses on that land will wipe out that space. So if the intention is to keep that land open then the only way to construct so many homes is to fill in the few brown field spaces and go upwards in tower blocks of flats. The obvious questions that are referred to in the documentation are about infrastructure and high value employment so they can be afforded.

The maps also show quite clearly that the only way to travel out of the town is to the West there are rivers and water on the other sides, there is currently a pollution issue with those Westerly going roads, if there is not high value employment locally and the homes are built to the East / Northeast of the town centre then it is obvious that the density of traffic on those existing roads will increase as people travel to their places of work.

Having reviewed the ONS statistics on population density, Southend is the highest in the South Essex region already. From personal experience, I live in one of those areas most highly populated. Over various Council administrations through many years I have seen the impact of the decisions they have taken by allowing the family home conversions to flats. It is not pleasant and the area continues to deteriorate, concentrating more housing into the existing built up areas will not provide a good life style. By building on green field sites will reduce the potential carbon capturing abilities of those areas. Just cramming more people into the borough will not provide a life style that I feel most people want.

A question, are those 24,000 homes for the dependants of the existing residents into the future or are they to encourage more people to move into the area? I do not want more people to come to live in Southend, I would like the council to get the basics right for the existing residents with maintenance of the existing road network / footpaths and other infrastructure needs. They over many years have just been left to deteriorate, the effect being that some residents believe that the authorities do not care about them. The consequences being that pavement parking destroying footpaths and rubbish just being left where it is dropped. (Some new paving slabs were put in place a month ago along my street, they are now just as cracked as the ones that they replaced.) If there is an environment to respect then perhaps there will be a happier population.

One look at the local free papers and the housing for sale pages will show you how costly it is to buy a property in Southend. The adverts are for “Luxury apartments”, even the councils promotional material refers to Luxury, the homeless folks of Southend do not have employment that pays them enough to afford those properties, that means more people make their way to Southend who can afford them. They do not come here for work, so the commuter traffic be that trains or the road networks get even more saturated.

I understand that being able to own your own home or renting is a complex issue and the human nature of greed is one of the principle causes of why the whole country has these issues. Yes I am a NIMBY as far as the whole of Southend goes. There is no desire for the density of the local population to increase by encouraging new settlers, there is however a desire for the existing local issues to be resolved and those that abuse what is already there to be reminded forcefully of their role in returning the town to a pleasant place for the rest of the inhabitants.

Another question about the 24,000 homes, is this just an arbitrarily manufactured number by central government or some locally created quantity? Why shouldn’t other areas of Essex have their population densities brought up to the same level as Southend on Sea before there is a need to uplift the figures for Southend? I have included the figures so you can see the difference, assuming that you have not already looked.
A statement in amongst the documents talks about over reliance of the High Street and retail outlets here, this is another misnomer as since the mid 1990’s the variety and number of retail enterprises in the High street has reduced to just a couple of main stream shops, they cannot support the whole town financially. This has been impacted even more by the use of online buying. A by-product of which is the large volumes of delivery vans making use of the existing road network (creating more pollution).

Just thinking about the whole concept of a Town Plan and that civil servants would take over if we did not come up with our own plan brings into question who demanded this in the first place. Probably those self-same civil servants. It does of course provide high value business for the consultancy firms involved in manufacturing the plans who probably don’t actually live in the area and experience the existing issues and will not experience the consequences if those plans are adopted.

Perhaps I should just lie back and ignore the whole thing, especially as I won’t be alive in 2050, I just want someone to listen and take notice, the congestion is awful and will only get worse with more people moving into the town.

The plan should not be about homes and housing it should be about initially getting the town back to an environment that is pleasant to live in, encouraging businesses to create local Southend based employment that pays well and an education system that provides the skills and knowledge to the youth of the town so they can progress into those local businesses. The consequences of that would be no need to bring new people into the town and the local population would be able to afford to buy their own homes locally.
The offices in Victoria Avenue was at one time an opportunity for good employment it was created primarily because there were few prospects in Southend. Those mainly Government employers then decided that they needed to move those jobs elsewhere, the consequences being that once again Southend lost valuable employment opportunities. Those offices are being converted to Flats, initially for sale to the public, it now seems that investors have bought them and are renting them out at locally unaffordable rents. This has not resolved the issue of having a home of your own, developers creating 24,000 homes will only exacerbate the issue where investors will buy them to rent out, again excluding those from the low wage economy that is the majority of Southend.

I like many of the comments I have just seen on the Facebook post from the Council also believe that any views like mine will be put into the pot that says does not like change so let’s ignore them. Once again please get the basics right in the first place and then see what is needed for Southend on Sea not for the rest of the South East of the country.
Greed, Envy, Self Interest and Selfishness will prevail. How about considering the needs of the local residents first, Southend is now full thank you very much.
I do hope that I hear that you are listening to some of what I’ve said.

Firstly I do not believe that the Councillors in Southend have produced these documents, they appear to be similar to a previous town centre plan where the consultancy firm involved had public consultations, one of which I attended. They had a fixed agenda and the way the meeting was targeted any local concerns were conveniently ignored so that their conclusion was the one put forward. So having confidence in this latest effort is very low.

Firstly your maps show quite clearly how much open space there is left in the Borough, and constructing 24,000 houses on that land will wipe out that space. So if the intention is to keep that land open then the only way to construct so many homes is to fill in the few brown field spaces and go upwards in tower blocks of flats. The obvious questions that are referred to in the documentation are about infrastructure and high value employment so they can be afforded.

The maps also show quite clearly that the only way to travel out of the town is to the West there are rivers and water on the other sides, there is currently a pollution issue with those Westerly going roads, if there is not high value employment locally and the homes are built to the East / Northeast of the town centre then it is obvious that the density of traffic on those existing roads will increase as people travel to their places of work.

Having reviewed the ONS statistics on population density, Southend is the highest in the South Essex region already. From personal experience, I live in one of those areas most highly populated. Over various Council administrations through many years I have seen the impact of the decisions they have taken by allowing the family home conversions to flats. It is not pleasant and the area continues to deteriorate, concentrating more housing into the existing built up areas will not provide a good life style. By building on green field sites will reduce the potential carbon capturing abilities of those areas. Just cramming more people into the borough will not provide a life style that I feel most people want.

A question, are those 24,000 homes for the dependants of the existing residents into the future or are they to encourage more people to move into the area? I do not want more people to come to live in Southend, I would like the council to get the basics right for the existing residents with maintenance of the existing road network / footpaths and other infrastructure needs. They over many years have just been left to deteriorate, the effect being that some residents believe that the authorities do not care about them. The consequences being that pavement parking destroying footpaths and rubbish just being left where it is dropped. (Some new paving slabs were put in place a month ago along my street, they are now just as cracked as the ones that they replaced.) If there is an environment to respect then perhaps there will be a happier population.

One look at the local free papers and the housing for sale pages will show you how costly it is to buy a property in Southend. The adverts are for “Luxury apartments”, even the councils promotional material refers to Luxury, the homeless folks of Southend do not have employment that pays them enough to afford those properties, that means more people make their way to Southend who can afford them. They do not come here for work, so the commuter traffic be that trains or the road networks get even more saturated.

I understand that being able to own your own home or renting is a complex issue and the human nature of greed is one of the principle causes of why the whole country has these issues. Yes I am a NIMBY as far as the whole of Southend goes. There is no desire for the density of the local population to increase by encouraging new settlers, there is however a desire for the existing local issues to be resolved and those that abuse what is already there to be reminded forcefully of their role in returning the town to a pleasant place for the rest of the inhabitants.

Another question about the 24,000 homes, is this just an arbitrarily manufactured number by central government or some locally created quantity? Why shouldn’t other areas of Essex have their population densities brought up to the same level as Southend on Sea before there is a need to uplift the figures for Southend? I have included the figures so you can see the difference, assuming that you have not already looked.
A statement in amongst the documents talks about over reliance of the High Street and retail outlets here, this is another misnomer as since the mid 1990’s the variety and number of retail enterprises in the High street has reduced to just a couple of main stream shops, they cannot support the whole town financially. This has been impacted even more by the use of online buying. A by-product of which is the large volumes of delivery vans making use of the existing road network (creating more pollution).

Just thinking about the whole concept of a Town Plan and that civil servants would take over if we did not come up with our own plan brings into question who demanded this in the first place. Probably those self-same civil servants. It does of course provide high value business for the consultancy firms involved in manufacturing the plans who probably don’t actually live in the area and experience the existing issues and will not experience the consequences if those plans are adopted.

Perhaps I should just lie back and ignore the whole thing, especially as I won’t be alive in 2050, I just want someone to listen and take notice, the congestion is awful and will only get worse with more people moving into the town.

The plan should not be about homes and housing it should be about initially getting the town back to an environment that is pleasant to live in, encouraging businesses to create local Southend based employment that pays well and an education system that provides the skills and knowledge to the youth of the town so they can progress into those local businesses. The consequences of that would be no need to bring new people into the town and the local population would be able to afford to buy their own homes locally.
The offices in Victoria Avenue was at one time an opportunity for good employment it was created primarily because there were few prospects in Southend. Those mainly Government employers then decided that they needed to move those jobs elsewhere, the consequences being that once again Southend lost valuable employment opportunities. Those offices are being converted to Flats, initially for sale to the public, it now seems that investors have bought them and are renting them out at locally unaffordable rents. This has not resolved the issue of having a home of your own, developers creating 24,000 homes will only exacerbate the issue where investors will buy them to rent out, again excluding those from the low wage economy that is the majority of Southend.

I like many of the comments I have just seen on the Facebook post from the Council also believe that any views like mine will be put into the pot that says does not like change so let’s ignore them. Once again please get the basics right in the first place and then see what is needed for Southend on Sea not for the rest of the South East of the country.
Greed, Envy, Self Interest and Selfishness will prevail. How about considering the needs of the local residents first, Southend is now full thank you very much.
I do hope that I hear that you are listening to some of what I’ve said.

.