We will get Masterplan AND Barn Hall homes
Echo letters page, 22 February 2008, from John Rushton

I believe the application for planning permission at Barn Hall, Wickford is going exactly the way Basildon Council wants (Echo 14 Feb). 
   I don’t believe it was an accident that the council hadn’t held this meeting within the 13 weeks it was supposed to. By delaying, it has allowed the developers the right to submit an appeal to a government inspector.
   I believe the council actually WANTS this development to go through, which it is likely to on appeal, but they don’t want to be SEEN to want it. 
   We all want a better Wickford, but the council’s spin about how the Masterplan will mean that Barn Hall could be saved is pure fiction.
   With 200 more houses at Barn Hall, the council would get £750,000 every year in tax, AND it would be able to supplement it's disgraceful shortfall in meeting government housing targets.
   Building high-rise blocks of flats is NOT the way to regenerate a town. It will create padlocked gated communities of transient commuters, paying rent to the buy-to-let merchants, and will not help my kids to get onto the housing ladder. 
   References to the Masterplan is a scam to divert the Barn Hall residents' attentions away from the bitter truth – we are going to get the Masterplan AND Barn Hall.

John Rushton
Guernsey Gardens, Wickford