Anna Waite: We need more apartment blocks in Southend

3:00pm Friday 31st December 2010 in News By Steve Hackwell

Anna Waite Anna Waite

TALL apartment blocks may be the solution to Southend’s housing crisis, according to the councillor tasked with tackling the problem.

Anna Waite, councillor rsponsible for housing at Southend Council, believes building upwards is the only effective way to provide more affordable homes.

The Tory politician spoke out after the Echo discovered housing benefits worth more than £1million a week is being handed out to keep cash-strapped residents in privately-rented properties. Mrs Waite said: “We have nowhere to go but up.

“We are squeezed between Rochford’s green belt and the estuary There is nowhere else to build.

“Historically we have not built enough one and two-bedroom homes for young couples and small families, and I believe a few, well-placed apartment blocks are the way to go.

“I’m not talking about creating a 1960s landscape because these blocks are clearly not for everywhere, but I do think modern, well-designed buildings are attractive places to live.”

According to figures obtained by the Echo from the Department for Work and Pensions, there are 16,620 people in Southend currently receiving housing benefit.

On average, it costs the taxpayer about £72 a week to keep people in council homes.

But that figure spirals to about £110 when the Government is forced to subsidise rents for private houses and flats.

There are 9,720 benefits claimants living in private homes in Southend, compared to 6,890 in council properties. That puts the town well ahead of neighbouring Basildon and Chelmsford, where the number renting from landlords is three times smaller than those in social housing.

Mrs Waite advocated sites in the town centre, on the seafront and derelict areas such as the former South East Essex College base in Carnarvon Road as possible locations for the new blocks.

But Graham Longley, leader of the authority’s Liberal Democrats, has called for restraint.

He said: “There are tower blocks and then there are tower blocks.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with something which encourages a mixture of people, such as a four or five-storey building with shops below it.

“But when you get to ten, 12 or 15 storeys, that is too much. We do not want to do anything which could create a ghetto.”

Comments(46)

karen29 says...
3:23pm Fri 31 Dec 10

I wonder if there is a tory supporting developer preparing to submit plans for blocks of flats in Southend? As Waite has now publicly supported blocks of flats one hopes she will absent herself from any future planning meeting where blocks of flats are on the agenda as she wont be going into the meeting with an open mind.

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radioman says...
3:37pm Fri 31 Dec 10

I am not entirely sure tha the substructure of Southend, which is alluvial clay on top of chalk, is a creditable foundation. The clay has been on the move for at least 8,000 years, as witness the cliffs collapse.

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SARFENDMAN says...
3:49pm Fri 31 Dec 10

Sort have always thought 60's thinking lives on in Southend. Demolish all things heritage related and build tall. Hope there is some thoughts regarding car spaces though.

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BASILBRUSH says...
3:57pm Fri 31 Dec 10

I'm sure the people that pay a premium to live with Estuary views will be chuffed to know all they had to do was get on the housing register ;)

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fletch12107 says...
3:58pm Fri 31 Dec 10

So Cllr Waite wants tower blocks and Cll Longley doesn't want ghettos. Well that idea will go nowhere...well at least not until a few meetings have been arranged and a few bob in expenses claimed. How about you put a cap on payment for these private landlords that are raking in a guaranteed incomes. A lot of properties that were once council owned have been purchased at a much reduced market value then let out to people at market rates enabling the original council tenant to buy a more saleable property with their new found income. So I reckon that the council have no idea about what is going on with the housing situation or else some are having a nice little earner themselves.

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el caballero de la noche says...
3:59pm Fri 31 Dec 10

A cheaper option would be offer people money to VOLUNTARILY return from whence they came.

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davedobbin says...
4:26pm Fri 31 Dec 10

All the studies into housing say that large blocks are wasteful on space because they require large amounts of space to counteract the wind-tunnel effect and to provide large shared car parking space. It is more efficient to build well-laid out streets with one or two storied housing. Planners in the 1970s knew this - why doesn't Anna Waite?

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Nebs says...
4:49pm Fri 31 Dec 10

What we need are more jobs, so as people can afford a house with a garden. The Southend plan of not many years ago favoured bungalows.

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'V' says...
4:52pm Fri 31 Dec 10

There's plenty of room for lots of apartment blocks in the fields around Barling.

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mr_happy says...
4:54pm Fri 31 Dec 10

Ah-ha,

More tower blocks to home more druggies, benefit grabbers and asylum seekers. We here of all sorts of miss goings on in the tower blocks that we already have. I just wonder if W&H roads have a subsidery company who build tower blocks? If she does get them built, maybe she could scrape up all the usless speed humps and re-use the tarmac for the towerblock car parks. Is this woman going to ****-up every time she is moved to another department?

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JuliaM says...
5:18pm Fri 31 Dec 10

mr_happy wrote:
Ah-ha,

More tower blocks to home more druggies, benefit grabbers and asylum seekers. We here of all sorts of miss goings on in the tower blocks that we already have. I just wonder if W&H roads have a subsidery company who build tower blocks? If she does get them built, maybe she could scrape up all the usless speed humps and re-use the tarmac for the towerblock car parks. Is this woman going to ****-up every time she is moved to another department?
Looks like it, doesn't it?

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JuliaM says...
5:20pm Fri 31 Dec 10

And no doubt if Waite thinks that 'modern, well-designed buildings are attractive places to live', she doesn't live in anything else herself.

Does she?

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alongtheway says...
5:24pm Fri 31 Dec 10

Well if Anna Waite is prepared to live in one- then it will be allright. This councils loony ideas are a larf-a-minute.
Whats wromg with all the office space laying idle in Victoria Avenue.

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juneantom says...
5:34pm Fri 31 Dec 10

build 5 tower blocks at barling near Mrs waites house,,and see if she likes it

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Alice in Her Own Land :P says...
5:55pm Fri 31 Dec 10

There are many empty (some boarded up) properties that should be brought back into use before building new ones. Something tells me that we are to brace ourselves for more undesirables being dumped in Southend for the want of somewhere to put them.

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roweda says...
6:19pm Fri 31 Dec 10

Cllr Waite.

I would suggest that you take a very careful look at the other apartment tower blocks in central Southend and reconsider your statement. They always appear to be featuring in the news for the wrong reasons.
Additional tower blocks will just add to the troubles and result in the town centre becoming a no go area.
How would you like a tower block on your doorstep? I thought not.

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gitreal says...
7:04pm Fri 31 Dec 10

If she wants to build up, I suggest she leads by example and build up where she lives first. If this works then she can continue bleating. Until then she should shut her cakehole.

I think a flash mob in her garden might be a good thing to show their opposition.

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Nebs says...
7:30pm Fri 31 Dec 10

The government cannot afford to pay the housing costs for those who live in London, so move them out to Southend where it will be cheaper.
.
Maybe a few of us could club together, buy a house in Barling, and let it out as a drug rehabilitation centre.

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ShipShape says...
8:18pm Fri 31 Dec 10

Happy New year you lot!

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lucy10 says...
8:25pm Fri 31 Dec 10

do family want to live like this no garden for kids to play is there a big brown envelope coming your way for the warrior square swinming pool to turn in to flats from the people up the road

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STEPSIMS38 says...
9:20pm Fri 31 Dec 10

ohh great success living in a box surrounded by others struggling. lets get some original thought on how we improve the lives of people at rock bottom please.......... if not lets just go ahead and build some more tower blocks that blight the landscape and put the struggling work force into POXY PIDGEON HOLES AGAIN!!!!

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Alice in Her Own Land :P says...
9:31pm Fri 31 Dec 10

ShipShape wrote:
Happy New year you lot!
And Happy New Year to you. What next year will bring, who knows. Have a good one, folks!!

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termite1944 says...
9:53pm Fri 31 Dec 10

High rise housing creates depression, that is a fact! And where do the children play, in the lifts that seldom work?

People needs homes with gardens where children can play safely!

the last thing Southend needs is more high rise, it is a dump and I am sure with the right incentive, you could actually pay folk to move to another area ... me too!

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bronte says...
12:25am Sat 1 Jan 11

Oh Dear! here comes another big mistake. Learn from the past of other areas, how high rise accommadation create more problems than they solve.
Maybe Anna Waite should use a bit of common sense and look at the bigger picture.

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Ivanna Goodhump says...
1:00am Sat 1 Jan 11

Just what we need - another few Cluny Square's.
~
When it was built the Council had exactly the same idea but the reality is that it's become a scum ridden sh1t hole as will the new ones if actually built.
~
As a previous poster has stated - remove the right of immigrants, asylum seekers, EU migrants to have social housing and the problem of lack of supply improves massively.
~
Couple this with mandatory means testing of exisiting tenants, removal of the "lifetime tenancy" and mandatory downsizing when siblings move out and the system should work to support the genuinely needy Southend residents.
~
As for Anna Waite - she really hasn't a clue has she. How can one person f~ck up everything she touches ....

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lemon demon says...
9:00am Sat 1 Jan 11

happy new year everyone!!
there are plenty of tower blocks laying idle down victoria avenue, if she has any brains she would make use of them before building anymore.

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Nebs says...
9:34am Sat 1 Jan 11

If you are going to build one, it should be named Anna Waite Tower. This will then serve as a reminder in the future as to who had the good/bad (delete as you think fit) idea.

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STEPSIMS38 says...
11:29am Sat 1 Jan 11

lemon demon wrote:
happy new year everyone!!
there are plenty of tower blocks laying idle down victoria avenue, if she has any brains she would make use of them before building anymore.
Happy new year to all.
Please read the article, You will find you have the same views as anna waite

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STEPSIMS38 says...
11:35am Sat 1 Jan 11

STEPSIMS38 wrote:
lemon demon wrote:
happy new year everyone!!
there are plenty of tower blocks laying idle down victoria avenue, if she has any brains she would make use of them before building anymore.
Happy new year to all.
Please read the article, You will find you have the same views as anna waite
Sorry me wrong, now im even more disgusted with anna waite's solution to the problems
I thought she was actually suggesting we save money by using the older buildings.....
i am speechless

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jayman says...
12:33pm Sat 1 Jan 11

i would comment on the usual standard of misanthropic, socially absent comments. George Orwell wrote entire volumes about this kind of attitude. i think that some people on hear are private landlords themselves and see a hard working family with children just above the bread line as some sort of pension prevision. build them soon just dont make the same mistakes as the in the 70's. show the people that have profited in from sub-standard housing that the buy to let gamble wont always pay off. then rub there noses in it in a court yard as hard working families look on with big f-ing smiles.

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alexpenn3 says...
2:29pm Sat 1 Jan 11

This woman is an absolute waste of life! Now i see where council tax is being wasted! Most of it on this persons wages. She gets paid to make southend look like a dump! She put palm tree's down the seafront and now she is creating more tall buildings ruining southend! Please tell me this woman wont be around for long!

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Broadwaywatch says...
2:45pm Sat 1 Jan 11

It is a shame that there is a ruling in local government that allows people who live outside the Southend Borough to be able to stand as councillors for the Southend Borough.
Why is it that Mrs Waite, who is a member of the Rochford Conservative Club and lives in Barling, which comes under Rochford, has not stood for election and become a Councillor for Rochford other than Southend? This question rather baffles me.
Come on Rochford……there
s an offer. Lovely Tower Blocks.

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jolllyboy says...
2:57pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Now we know why Anna Waite has been moved to social needs. So she can continue coming up with not good ideas such as this. I worked at one of the office blocks down Vic Ave and it would have been ideal as either student or social housing if they had troubled then. However, high rise create wind tunnels, they are anti-social and would suggest she contacts the police for their input on the number of times there are complaints, raids and call outs before she puts this ridiculous idea into practice. 3/4 storeys high is okay. higher is not. I am advised but someone who was told it that there are empty spaces in the tower blocks at the moment but that people do not want to live there no matter what. We all know there are other empty properties and there are plenty of other solutions, therefore earn the money you are all paid for and think again.

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Broadwaywatch says...
3:00pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Perhaps Mrs Waite wouldn’t mind investigating as to why the old ‘Shelford’ accommodation property in West Street Prittlewell has stood empty and has been left to be run down and vandalised for so many years.

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Cockle says...
3:22pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Dear, dear Councillor Waite. Yet again demonstrating how she has such a handle on the problems and their causes that are affecting so many of her constituents in the tower blocks of St Lukes Ward; her ward. Don't worry, councillor, just keep demonstrating your understanding of our problems all the way up to election day.

Just another example of how our three Tory councillors who are non-resident in our ward have such a good understanding of our problems; their view must be crystal clear from leafy Barling and Thorpe Bay.

May 5th 2011, Mrs Waite, May 5th 2011.
Tick tock, tick tock..........

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Shpyder says...
3:48pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Is there no limit to this woman. Why does she hate Southend so much?
Does she not read the council planning minutes?
The proposals for the old college site have already been rejected. They could quite easily have turned it into student accommodation instead of building leggoland in the town centre but, forethought has never been a strong point of this council.
Now we get even more woolly thinking from so-called do-gooders. Well Ms Waite please descend from cloud cuckoo land and join us real mortals that have to live with your mess.
P.S. electorate please remember this nonsense before you cast your vote next time

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daveyboy25 says...
8:23pm Sat 1 Jan 11

maybe some councillors could move in and see how it is to live like this, my sister lives in one of these dumps and hates it, and she works and has 2 children

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Seasider90 says...
8:25pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Think of this people of Southend. Cluney Square, Beaver Towers, Balmoral Tower Blocks. Now as someone who used to do a paper round in all 3 tower blocks at Balmoral they were spotlessly clean, looked after by a caretaker and safe. Now they are the pits as will be the new tower blocks. Why? Because they will fill them up with London overflow immigrants and druggies. I suppose the only positive is that it keeps them all in one place thus making it easier for the police. Think towerblocks think ghetto and Southend spirals down again as a scummy little town. God help all you that live in Southend and Westcliff. Put up a new flag - you're not in England anymore.

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another council tax payer says...
8:46pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Has that woman any idea what life is like
for people in the existing tower blocks
such as quantock etc,they are drug ridden,anti social and scary places to
live why build more

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Nebs says...
10:51pm Sat 1 Jan 11

Don't forget that you can attend council meetings. Dates and details are at
http://apps.southend
.gov.uk/minutes/

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Broadwaywatch says...
12:00pm Sun 2 Jan 11

karen29 wrote:
I wonder if there is a tory supporting developer preparing to submit plans for blocks of flats in Southend? As Waite has now publicly supported blocks of flats one hopes she will absent herself from any future planning meeting where blocks of flats are on the agenda as she wont be going into the meeting with an open mind.
A very good point. She has backed that rule against others in the past Its up to us all to remind her of that rule and make sure that it applies to her as well

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gardenman says...
5:07pm Sun 2 Jan 11

Says alot for the people in Southend that continue voting in this shambles to run their town.Lets see what happens in the elections in may,same ol thing.

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jayman says...
9:46am Mon 3 Jan 11

i say lets have a look at the proposals and judge the designs on merit. this woman has a lot to answer for in my opinion but i believe inside every Tory there is a real human being just fighting to get out. lets just see, if this woman is drowning lets throw her a rope.

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nigelandbozena says...
12:14pm Mon 3 Jan 11

There are two types of tower block residents in Southend, those that can AFFORD to be there, and those who can't. Which ones does Ms Waite wish to attract to her new blocks?

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Dumbnut says...
12:39am Tue 4 Jan 11

Has anyone got a good word to say about this woman?. Seriously, how does she get voted in every time than?.

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westcliff willi says...
12:12pm Tue 4 Jan 11

there two types of people that live in any house/flat those that give a sh17 and those that dont. new york and hong kong have hise rise living that is seen as desirable, the problem is the people southend choose to house in any property. if people have nt got the skills to look after themselves and their (our) property then the whole country is fked

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