Leigh flats: Has the tide turned? (From Echo)

Leigh flats: Has the tide turned?

8:00am Thursday 1st March 2007

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Developers have submitted plans for more than 150 flats in Leigh in the last year - but Southend Council has turned down every one of them.

This is a noted change from the previous year, when developers managed to get plans for 31 flats passed by the council.

Could this shift mark a permanent transition away from flat-building in Leigh?

Alan Crystall, ward councillor for Leigh, said the town was already full and insisted there just was not enough room for more flats.

He said: "Leigh is full. It has got as many people as it needs.

"The clinics are full to bursting, doctors' surgeries are packed, infant and junior schools are packed out. There's more than enough people in the area."

However, the council has to conform to housing targets set out by the Government, which require 160,000 new homes to be built in the Thames Gateway area by 2016.

Charlie Robson, interim development control manager, said: "What we are starting to get is developers getting quite enthusiastic about flat developments.

"The Government puts pressure on for more affordable housing and is trying to provide more property people can afford.

"Developers are seizing on that and coming forward with applications."

Between January 2006 and January 2007, applications were made to build blocks of flats on 12 different sites in Leigh.

Despite their refusal by Southend council, many residents are still sceptical there is any chance of flat development tailing off.

Jill Riches, who lives in Grand Parade, Leigh, has been fighting the proposed development of five flats at number 31 in her road.

She said: "I think probably what happens is that people submit plans for a development that are absolutely unrealistic, in the hope people will get worn down in the battle against it.

"Then they'll end up getting plans through with something that's worse than ideal because people run out of energy."

James Baker, a partner at RV Hall and Co estate agents, in the Broadway, Leigh, said there was a continued demand for flats in the area, especially among young people and those who wanted to downsize.

He said: "There does seem to be a shortage of flats in the area. I suppose that's one reason why so many of these sites are developed.

"Developers know there is a big demand for flats in Leigh. The money people are prepared to pay has also gone up a lot for good quality flats."

However, he said buyers were also keen to snap up Leigh's traditional Victorian and Edwardian properties. Eddie Cornish, chairman of West Leigh residents' Association, said he was afraid these traditional properties were being lost, and not just due to flat development.

Following a recent Leigh Town Council planning meeting, he said: "There were 29 applications that evening.

"They were all people who really want to build large extensions to the side and rear.

"They are converting what we would say are normal town houses into mansions, more or less.

"If we are not careful, with developers building all the flats and the small houses being converted into larger properties, there won't be any properties for people to downsize into.

"The only option they'll have is to move into flats."

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