BEAUCHAMPS ESTATE

In recent months DAVID HARRISON and the WICKFORD ACTION GROUP have been in consultation with some residents of the Beauchamps Estate in connection with the parking and traffic congestion in the area.
We are pressing for the return of the high profile scheme of a few years ago to control the problem – particularly when parents are dropping off, or picking up their children at the three schools in the area.
We are also engaging with Essex County Council Highways in the best way forward to address the problem.
If elected DAVID HARRISON will resurrect the local Committee formed to monitor the problems – namely the Police, the Head teachers and local residents.
DAVID HARRISON is a member of the recently formed Community Safety Action Zone which covers Shotgate and the Highcliffe areas. He has raised with the Police representatives the problems associated with the youth problems around Tesco's as well as in the Memorial Park. As a result in the near future the Basildon Council Youth Bus will be in the area.

SHOTGATE

As a Shotgate Parish Councillor DAVID HARRISON has campaigned for an improvement in the bus service serving the area. Although the campaign to date has been unsuccessful, he will continue to press the matter.
The Shotgate Farm plan for football pitches and a pavilion was approved by the Council, despite objections from local people and the Wickford Action Group, but now that this section is lost, we fear that the adjacent plot could follow. The WICKFORD ACTION GROUP will continue to monitor planning applications in this area to ensure that it remains in the Green Belt.

BARN HALL

DAVID HARRISON  and the WICKFORD ACTION GROUP will continue their opposition to the proposed development of the land to the north of Barn Hall, as well as monitoring any proposals for development that is in the Chelmsford Council area. The current application from Gleesons was turned down by the council, and the appeal is now set to be heard in Basildon on 24th June. The Wickford Action Group will attend and vigorously oppose the plan, along with we hope many local residents. We are optimistic about the outcome, although with the present government's emphasis on ever more housing, it will be a fight to the finish.

WICKFORD TOWN CENTRE

The two 5 storey blocks of flats on Runwell Road and London Road, and the twin 6 storey blocks next to the old Post Office are now well underway, but there is no sign of any improvements to the road system in the area. All of the Council’s and Councillors promises when the Master Plan was in ‘consultation’ are not being met – no improvements to the infrastructure are being provided. Questions by DAVID HARRISON  and the WICKFORD ACTION GROUP continue to be asked, but a voice on the Council will give us a more effective fighting tool.

We do want to see the town improved, and the regeneration of derelict sites is a great idea, but from these and other plans so far approved, we can't see how 5 and 6 storey blocks of flats will make things better, in fact it looks like they will get worse it terms of the support infrastructure!

• bus services are not adequate 
• trains are already packed at rush hour times 
• the roads into and out of Wickford are gridlocked during peak times 
• more doctors and dentists are needed even now 
• poor range of shops 
• insufficient public parking at a reasonable price, leading to anti-social parking in high street, with poor or non-existent policing.

HOUSING TARGETS

In her 2008 election leaflet, Carole Morris states:
“Recently the government has been demanding high levels of housing development in Wickford.”

This is not true.

There are certainly targets for the Basildon area, but Wickford has already provided it’s fair share of these – why should Wickford continue to bear an unfair load?

Here are the facts.

1. The government housing target for Basildon is 10,700 new homes in the period 2001 to 2021 
   
   

2. The following information was provided to the Wickford Action Group by Tony Ball, Basildon Councillor and Cabinet Member for Housing.

Examination of the above table shows that:

• The government target of 10,700 homes between 2001 and 2021 equates to 535 homes per year.
• To meet the government target, the total for Basildon at the end of 2007 should have been 3,210, so they are 1,747 short
• The population of Wickford is almost exactly 20% of the population of Basildon, so on a pro-rata basis the total number of new homes in Wickford by 2007 should have been 642, so at 570 we were very close to the target (88% as opposed to 46% for Basildon). 
• Looking ahead, in order to meet the government target, Basildon needs 9,237 new homes by 2021, equating to 660 per year form 2008. Wickford would need 1,570 for a pro-rata contribution, which is 112 per year.
  But under the Masterplan and the current approvals now granted, we are committed to 722 new homes, so Wickford has already provided it’s housing contribution up to 2014.

Why should Wickford be used by Basildon Council to make up for it’s abysmal house building record?

How can this abortion of a development plan be used to justify the cost of block paving in the High Street? 

Why do they use the excuse of ‘new swimming pool – new library – new health centre – new community centre’ for the Masterplan, when these are just replacements, which we would expect to be provided as the basic role of a Caring Council, and not as the justification for a multi-million pound development plan which will make a few men very rich but in the meantime will destroy the town we love?

"RESISTANCE IS USELESS!"

WHY WOULD AN INDEPENDENT COUNCILLOR HELP WICKFORD?

The present 7 Wickford councillors are all from the controlling Conservative party, and three hold key roles in the planning arena: Malcolm Buckley, Council Leader, his wife Sylvia Buckley, Chairman of the Planning Committee, and Tony Ball, in charge of housing. All of the 7 Wickford Conservative councillors always toe the party line when it comes to Wickford issues, particularly in relation to the ‘Master Plan’, and decisions are made which blatantly disregard residents’ views. Just voting for a Conservative councillor because you ‘always vote Tory’ won’t solve the problems in Wickford.

An independent Wickford Action Group councillor has not the slightest intention or possibility of taking over the council, we just want to be the eyes, ears and voice for the people of Wickford, and would take every opportunity to voice your concerns from within, instead of just waiting to read in the paper about the latest planning disaster. 

When elected to Basildon Council in 2004 for the ward of Wickford North, Carole Morris said on her election leaflet:

“I believe that many of Wickford's problems result from a failure to develop infrastructure for the existing population, before building extra homes. I would like to see more doctors, dentists, teachers and police in Wickford, together with improvements to our highways”. 

You only have to see what is happening now in the town, multi storey blocks of flats with no improvements to an already creaking infrastructure, to see that this is a broken promise, and that Carole Morris has failed the people of Wickford. 

COUNCILLOR'S ALLOWANCES - ARE THEY WORTH IT?

In the year 2007/2007 the seven Conservative Wickford Councillors claimed £86,698 in allowances. Are we getting value for this?

If elected, DAVID HARRISON will draw only the allowances to cover actual expenditure, and not the full amount regardless.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH BLOCKS OF FLATS?

As more and more flats are built and planned for the centre of Wickford, it is worth recognising the current situation in the property market. The government is desperate to build 240,000 new homes a year without touching the green belt, so building flats has been positively encouraged in the past five years - and the number of new houses compared with flats has fallen by a quarter - and only four per cent of young families choose to live in flats!
Up to last summer new-build flats were mainly bought by buy-to-let landlords. The easy thing is to build one or two bedroom flats for the young and single, on the supposition that they will not need schools, doctors, nurseries etc. To meet this demand, greedy developers have put up rabbit hutches with no character. It's not enough to have a token restaurant at the bottom of the block - you need communal gardens, doctors surgeries, road improvements, transport improvements etc.
The situation at the beginning of 2008 is changing - according to housing experts the buy-to-let market is diminishing fast and I foresee Wickford having the short straw - flats built in the centre of Wickford to meet Government guidelines, but very little else being done in supporting the necessary improvements to the infrastructure.
Basildon Council has been sadly lacking in formulating a positive policy to ensure that infrastructure improvements were carried out alongside the building of the flats, thus ensuring problems in the future. 
<Extract from a letter in the Echo on 25th February 2008 from David Harrison >

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?

	Runwell Road, Wickford. A 5 storey block of 83 flats is being built on the site of the car showrooms. Wickford Councillor Sylvia Buckley voted FOR this, (Mrs Buckley is the wife of Council leader Malcolm Buckley, vigorous promoter of the Wickford Masterplan). The original Masterplan promised '35 town houses' on this site, but the 'approved' plan was changed to include this monstrousity.
Lower Southend Road, Riverside Place. Two 6 storey blocks of 173 flats are being built here by Bradgate Developments, whose director is Ray Ride, Chelmsford Councillor for the Wickford district of Runwell. This was the first 'flagship' development approved for the Masterplan, and was widely publicised in the local papers with pictures of Councillor Buckley and his team.
	London Road, Frasier's site. A 5 storey block of 35 flats being built here on the site of  Frasier's cafe / bar, even though the Masterplan had reserved this area for 'eating and drinking'. An earlier plan for a Medical Centre and 30 sheltered housing units was turned down by the planning committee, chairman Wickford Councillor, Mrs Buckley.

AND ONE THAT GOT AWAY

On 4th January 2008 the Echo broke a story of a plan to sell off the land on which Wickford Infant school stands, and merge the school with the Junior School across the road, including an extra building on the Junior School land.
It has been confirmed to the Wickford Action Group by the school governors that the original proposal originated from Basildon Council, although the Council deny this.
"BDC approached ECC and asked them to look into the opportunity of expanding the school". 
If it were to be approved, the council would have prime land in the town centre to offer to the highest bidder for yet more blocks of flats.

We would stress that the above was just a proposal, and we now know that the two schools involved have rejected the idea. 

We are extremely pleased that common sense has prevailed. To move onto the same ground would mean that the combined Infant and Junior schools would lose a significant area of playing fields, and at a time when the population of the town is being increased by over 700 flats under the Master Plan. 

It would also have resulted in YET MORE flats in the town centre, on the site of the Infant School. Wickford has precious few old buildings, yet the powers that be seem set on destroying the character of the town whilst filling the pockets of developers and estate agents.