City Deal boost for Southend regeneration plans (From Echo)

Anybody that can plan the Victoria Gateway and the City Beach Shared Space should have their planing powers removed not increased.

plenty of scope for the council to waste millions more on capital projects. plenty of extra scope for the council to approve plenty of questionable planning applications.....

Take plenty of photos of the last few remaining parts of Southend that make any sense in regards to town planning and infrastructure.

My most hated word = re-generation ! all it means to me is wasted money doing things the locals dont want. We want jobs, we want a high street to be proud of. Southend/Prittlewell is one of the oldest places in Essex yet it has been systematically pulled to pieces instead of making a feature of the old parts. Brighton, bath, and many others know the way. Not a library which the locals will be elbowed out by the university (its already happening at the southend library where its not quiet for studying and no-one makes them turn their phones off - if you can find staff that is.

So they want to knock down all the buildings and rebuild office space and flats... But hang on, that was what was there before: Portcullis House was up for rent as office space but no one was interested. The other building used to be housing.

I'm amazed about the amount of money wasted on ridiculous schemes since the recession started:

- City Beach (Dangerous shared space)
- Victoria Gateway (traffic now worse even though council promised it wouldn't be)
- New library (not needed, the current one is fine - could have saved money keeping it)

Now they want to knock down a load of buildings and build flats and office space - Who can afford them though? Inflation is through the roof, people are struggling to eat.

joe2345 wrote:
So they want to knock down all the buildings and rebuild office space and flats... But hang on, that was what was there before: Portcullis House was up for rent as office space but no one was interested. The other building used to be housing.

I'm amazed about the amount of money wasted on ridiculous schemes since the recession started:

- City Beach (Dangerous shared space)
- Victoria Gateway (traffic now worse even though council promised it wouldn't be)
- New library (not needed, the current one is fine - could have saved money keeping it)

Now they want to knock down a load of buildings and build flats and office space - Who can afford them though? Inflation is through the roof, people are struggling to eat.

Portcullis House was suffering from a concrete disease which is the reason it was never let out, the cost of fixing the problem would have cost more than pulling it down and rebuilding, the logistics would have also resulted in who ever rented the building not being able to use the majority of it whilst works were undertaken to fix the problem.

Many of the sites that are proposed for these new works are currently redundant or about to become redundant such as Queensway House.

sorry, i thought the problem was that we do not have enough accommodation in the town for all the unemployed and imigrants and veryone else who was short of a home.
I am not being rude but surely this is a great opportunity to knock down those horrible 1960s buildings and do some good by providing cheap housing which the ex deputy of the labour party ( he should be humoured) was advocating?
it these sites were demolished and housing provided it would be a great solution.

RobertFS wrote:
sorry, i thought the problem was that we do not have enough accommodation in the town for all the unemployed and imigrants and veryone else who was short of a home.
I am not being rude but surely this is a great opportunity to knock down those horrible 1960s buildings and do some good by providing cheap housing which the ex deputy of the labour party ( he should be humoured) was advocating?
it these sites were demolished and housing provided it would be a great solution.

The biggest snag is...

The council do not own the buildings, a CPO of them would run in to millions, then it's the cost of demolishing the building and build the new houses, but you would not get many on the plots as the office blocks were higher than the ground they took up, if you include front and back gardens you get even less houses on the plots.

With Heath House it would have been an ideal conversion into family flats of three bedrooms, the building was not too high and could have been converted by the off shore company that owns it have probably let it go too far now, best option knock it down and make it into a car park until such time it pays to develop the site again, but again the issue of planning conditions pops up again, the same with Esplande House as long as the building is standing the planning permision for offices stay in place but because they are not habitilbe they do not have to pay rents on them.

The people behind Portcullis House have to be applauded for knocking it down thus removing a very large blot on the landscape.

RobertFS wrote:
sorry, i thought the problem was that we do not have enough accommodation in the town for all the unemployed and imigrants and veryone else who was short of a home.
I am not being rude but surely this is a great opportunity to knock down those horrible 1960s buildings and do some good by providing cheap housing which the ex deputy of the labour party ( he should be humoured) was advocating?
it these sites were demolished and housing provided it would be a great solution.

A great solution? Yes. For the problems of London and Eastern Europe. If you are going to build council houses then make length of residence in Southend the sole criteria for allocation.

RobertFS wrote:
sorry, i thought the problem was that we do not have enough accommodation in the town for all the unemployed and imigrants and veryone else who was short of a home. I am not being rude but surely this is a great opportunity to knock down those horrible 1960s buildings and do some good by providing cheap housing which the ex deputy of the labour party ( he should be humoured) was advocating? it these sites were demolished and housing provided it would be a great solution.

Why should Southend house immigrants at all? If they want to come here then they should arrive with their pockets stuffed full of cash; or not allowed in, or sent home! Any cheap housing should be for residentsof Southend who have spent time on the waiting lists. Immigrants et al do NOT qualify!