1. Wickford North Green Action Group (WNGAG)
support new housing - not in the countryside but to help
regenerate town centres.
WNGAG emphasise that, concerned as we are about protecting
these Barn Hall fields, hedgerows and wildlife, we do not
oppose all development. Far from it! We stand firmly in
support of Basildon Council - asking only, as they do, that
development takes place in a planned and structured manner,
hand-in-hand with improvements to the infrastructure that
will guarantee Wickford a sustainable future.
Here the development proposals for Barn Hall are directly
contrary to the Wickford Masterplan, in which Basildon
Council has set out an ambitious programme to reverse years
of decline in the town centre. Since the building of two
superstores, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, on the A127, the town
centre has consistently lost key shops. Over the last few
years, Samson’s Men’s Outfitters, Wickford Soft
Furnishings, the Co-Op food outlet, the Broadway Arcade and
Thurston Sports have all gone. Consumer and customer
experiences are woefully poor - judged by the rising
expectations of the 21st century and, also, by other local
towns like Billericay and Chelmsford.
Regeneration under the Masterplan will bring a better
infrastructure, investment in modern public buildings and
amenities (with a new library, swimming pool, health
centre, and town square), more retail outlets, better
restaurants, bars and cafes, alongside new houses and
apartments - creating a vibrant town centre once more, a
place where people can enjoy modern, ‘urban living’, where
they can shop by day and eat and drink in the evening. Life
and activity - a successful retail and evening economy -
can, hopefully, be brought back to the centre without
destroying the very areas of surrounding countryside that
still make Wickford an attractive town to live and work in.
2. WNGAG are against urban sprawl and
over-development.
In a manner, sadly, all too apparent in south-east Essex
(and south-eastern England in general), Basildon District
as a whole has seen extensive, post-war green field
development. WNGAG fully support the Council‘s policy of
halting the encroachment of urban areas onto surrounding
countryside in order to combat climate change, reduce
traffic congestion, and make best use of the existing
infrastructure. It would be perverse to abruptly change
course by allowing this application to build by Gleesons
and Gladedale - thereby undermining the regeneration of
Wickford town centre, reverting to ‘urban sprawl’, and
destroying lovely, open countryside.
Put simply, building at Barn Hall is totally unnecessary.
WNGAG has asked the Planning Inspectorate to consider this
appeal with regard to the ‘bigger picture’ and not just the
initial, outline planning application. Gleesons and
Gladedale intend to build not just on the two fields
measuring 4.3 hectares (10.6 acres) quoted in their outline
planning application. This is merely a ‘stepping stone’ to
developing most of the 48.5 hectares (100 acres plus) up to
and beyond Waverley Crescent that they own - resulting in
up to 2,000 flats and houses being built in the very place
that Basildon and Chelmsford Councils have decided that
they do not want them. Flats and houses on this scale are
just not needed; and the question must be asked why
Basildon Council was asked to permit a development which
was directly contrary to all its own plans. The answer is
that it is for no other reason than the financial gain to
two building companies - which acquired the site ‘cheap’ as
agricultural land, which are not from the local area, and
which are not focussing on Wickford’s overall needs.
As well as reverting to urban sprawl, WNGAG considers that
building at Barn Hall would over-develop the North
Wickford/Runwell area. Existing plans already make nearby
parts of Wickford one of the most densely populated areas
within Basildon District. The population of Wickford grew
by over 50% between the 1981 and 2001 censuses to over
33,000 people; and significant building since 2001 leads
WNGAG to believe that the figure is now closer to 40,000.
And the population is still growing. There is agreement for
600 new homes at Runwell Hospital and another 600 homes
(mainly apartments) within the town centre - meaning that
central government targets for new builds up to 2021 can
already be met without allowing development on Barn Hall.
3. Building on Barn Hall would cause transport
chaos and worsen traffic congestion.
Gleesons’ and Gladedale’s application is prejudicial to the
re-planning of the area. Wickford is already one of the
most densely populated areas in south-east England. Station
Avenue is a very busy road. It is used by pedestrians and
vehicles - commuters, schoolchildren and shoppers - from
numerous streets surrounding Barn Hall to and from the
railway station and the town centre. It is the only vehicle
entry and exit to the station and the two station
car-parks; and is also used by numerous taxis (from the
taxi rank outside the station) and buses. It suffers from
serious congestion at peak times with the Station
Avenue/High Street junction consistently grid-locked in the
morning and evening rush-hours. Guernsey Gardens is
something of a ‘rat run’ to and from Station Avenue; Swan
Lane is equally overloaded; and the A132 in and out of
Wickford has been identified as having one of the highest
accident rates in Essex.
Nearby parts of Wickford are also going to be extensively
re-developed under the Masterplan. Any further development,
such as this one proposed for Barn Hall with its only
entry/exit point for cars being the already crowded Station
Avenue leading to the High Street ‘bottleneck’, would have
a significant and adverse result on traffic flows - leading
to road safety and traffic congestion issues around
Wickford railway station. What is required is not more ad
hoc building at Barn Hall but careful consideration in
conjunction with a traffic management policy for the whole
town under the Wickford Masterplan.
4. Public transport deficiencies would further
exacerbate current traffic problems.
The developers claimed in their planning application that
residents in the flats and houses that they propose to
build at Barn Hall would use public rather than private
transport. This is naïve. Public transport deficiencies
mean they’ll use their cars to commute to and from work, do
their shopping, and venture out for their leisure pursuits.
Wickford does have strong rail links to London with a
frequent service on the line from Southend Victoria to
Liverpool Street. But trains are overcrowded, as are the
station platforms. Wickford and Billericay commuters
already complain of being unable to get a seat and suffer
dangerous travelling conditions at peak times. Network Rail
have confirmed that the current facilities at Wickford
station are inadequate to cope with the additional
commuters that would result from this development, coming
as it does on top of other developments already underway in
the station catchment area. There are no direct trains to
Stansted Airport, nor Chelmsford and Colchester; none
whatsoever to Pitsea, Basildon and Laindon; no rail link to
the C2C line from Shoeburyness to London Fenchurch Street;
and no train services into Kent.
Bus services to and from a town of Wickford’s size are
poor. There is a limited bus service within the town centre
and disrupted movement both east-west to Lower Southend
Road and north-south to Nevendon Road. There are poor
connections to the local areas. There is a bus interchange
at the railway station entrance, but the facilities are
poor and limited travel information is available to
passengers. Bus services to Basildon finish at 19.35
Mon-Fri (18.38 Sat). To Southend they finish at 17.52
Mon-Fri (18.05 Sat), to Rayleigh at 19.33 Mon-Fri (19.03
Sat), to Chelmsford at 18.55 Mon-Fri (17.55 Sat), and to
Billericay at 17.25 Mon-Fri (17.23 Sat). In essence, there
are no evening or late buses to Basildon, Basildon
Hospital, Southend, Rayleigh, Chelmsford and Billericay.
There are no bus services to Stansted Airport, Festival
Leisure Park in Basildon, Lakeside Shopping Centre,
Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, and Ebbsfleet
International Rail Terminal (Eurostar & the Channel
Tunnel link to the continent) in Kent.
The inevitable alternative is yet more journeys by private
car. Claims by Gleesons and Gladedale that the new
residents (for whom they wish to build flats and houses)
would use buses to commute from North Wickford to, say,
Chelmsford do not take account of these poor bus timetables
nor the relative times taken for each mode of transport. A
car journey from Wickford to Chelmsford takes no more than
25 minutes, whereas a bus journey - with only a limited
service - takes twice as long. Use of public transport is
not at all feasible if people have to travel to towns and
villages that are not directly accessible from Wickford,
eg. to areas bordering the A13 between Southend and Grays
(excluding Basildon), Kent, Stansted etc.
5. There are shortages already of NHS doctors and
dentists.
Wickford is already under pressure at the moment in terms
of the number of patients registered with GPs and has been
identified as a priority area for the Billericay, Brentwood
and Wickford Primary Care Trust (PCT). There is also a
shortage of NHS dentists, due to the population explosion.
The PCT is working closely with Basildon Council, which has
also identified Wickford town centre as an area for
re-development and regeneration. The present pressure on
local doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries will only be
aggravated by allowing building at Barn Hall that falls
outside Basildon Council’s schemes for regeneration under
the Masterplan.
6. There is also a lack of primary and secondary
school places.
There is also increasing pressure upon primary and
secondary school places in Wickford. This development at
Barn Hall would generate more pupils than the nearby
Runwell Primary School could take. In its present site, it
cannot be expanded. There are other primary schools in
Wickford, but they too have existing capacity pressures and
they cannot be reached without more car journeys. As for
secondary education, both Beauchamps High and Bromfords
Schools already had growing deficits of places against
demand before this planning application was made. So,
Wickford’s schools are full at present and the only
solutions are to build more schools, bus pupils to Basildon
or elsewhere, or reject planning applications like this
that do not reflect Basildon Council’s overall plans for
the whole District.
7. Building at Barn Hall would cause potential
water shortages and pressures on the sewage
system.
Essex is one of the driest areas in the United Kingdom.
With climate change bringing hotter, drier summers, water
supplies cannot be guaranteed. The local Hanningfield
reservoir is unable to cope with increased demands and
there is already a water supply problem affecting the whole
of south Essex unless Essex and Suffolk’s proposals to
extend the Abberton reservoir in Colchester proceed.
There are also pressures on the sewage system in North
Wickford. As long ago as 1994, an Anglian Water report
concluded that all sewage and surface water from a
previously suggested development at Barn Hall would
probably have to be diverted south into Station Avenue
where, in the lower part of that road, the foul sewage
system was already running at 180% of design capacity.
Also, in Jubilee Drive, the two ‘antique’ pumps in the
pumping station, built in 1977, struggle to cope. Raw
sewage spills at times into nearby front gardens
(particularly the one right next to the site in this
application) and Anglian Water regularly have to send
tankers to draw off sewage from the system.
8. Building here would increase dangers of
flooding.
For the most part, Wickford is flat and 10 metres above sea
level. Its town centre was badly hit by flooding in 1958.
There are drainage and water table problems already on
these two fields at Barn Hall. Water drains to the lowest
point, the bottom of Jubilee Drive, where a pond overflows.
Surface water stands on the fields and runs off. The
existing drainage pipe along Station Avenue is not adequate
to cope with further house building. If permitted, further
building would only increase the dangers of flooding.
Residents in bungalows and houses adjoining Barn Hall -
particularly those in the bungalows alongside Guernsey
Gardens, with their rear gardens abutting the proposed
development and who won’t be able to take refuge upstairs
if the waters rise - fear that what they saw on their TV
screens in 2006 from Yorkshire and Gloucestershire will be
their fate in future years if Gleesons and Gladedale have
their way.
9. Building would place further demands on
electricity supplies.
The electricity system in North Wickford is already
‘over-stretched’ without additional building. EDF Energy
were recently forced to spend £100,000 plus on upgrades
after years of frequent power cuts.
WNGAG is not suggesting that all the infrastructure
problems listed at 1 to 9 above could not be solved if very
substantial sums of public and private money were invested
on major improvements. But we do consider that:
• the cumulative and interactive impacts of other
developments elsewhere in Wickford were given insufficient
weight in the impact assessments submitted by Gleesons and
Gladedale as part of their outline planning application;
• those impact assessments were also misleading, over and
over again, because they reflect the developers’ initial
application to build up to 200 flats and houses on 4.3
hectares rather than their overall intention to forge ahead
and build up to 2,000 flats and houses on the whole 48.5
hectares;
• the loss of biodiversity and open, green
countryside, the loss of the beautiful meadows and all that
lives and grows within them - unlike any lack of
infrastructure - cannot be fixed, whatever money is spent.
It can only be destroyed by development and, when it’s
gone, it’s gone for ever and no act of man can ever bring
it back.
WNGAG concludes that to allow incremental building of new
flats and houses in Barn Hall, over and above those already
planned to meet local housing needs and central government
targets up to 2021, in an area already struggling to cope
with the needs of existing local residents, cannot be good,
sensible, reasonable planning.
WNGAG has, therefore, urged the Planning Inspectorate to:
• support Basildon Council in its rejection of Outline
Planning Application 07/00801/OUT;
• allow Basildon Council, in accordance with the course
already set by the Secretary of State for Communities and
Local Government, to decide the suitability of this and
other sites for housing through the Local Development
Framework (LDF) process;
• in so doing, support the Council to carry forward its
vision for Wickford and the entire Basildon District in
accordance with its strategy and structured plans - again
via the LDF process - with proper regard to the wishes of
the existing local community, the needs of those requiring
new homes to be built in the future, and the associated
improvements to local services and infrastructure;
• thereby building a vibrant town centre in
Wickford, which is sustainable; and,
• sits comfortably alongside the beautiful, green
countryside of Barn Hall.
