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I would like to object to the proposal in the Draft Plan for West Horndon. The plan states that West Horndon has good transport links, this is not correct. The A127 during rush hour is more often than not at a standstill and any large development in West Horndon can only add to this. The A127 is classed as undersized for the amount of traffic that uses it and there have been numerous consultations with regard to improving the A127 but none of which has been agreed or carried out so therefore the A127 is not adequate. The only access to the A127 from West Horndon to go towards Basildon is by Station Road. Any large development of housing would greatly increase the amount of traffic along this road and the junction with the A128. The A128 can be very dangerous due to the speed and amount of traffic which will only increase when the new container port is opened.

In Core Policies CP2c it states that development should not take place on green belt land that is used for food product or at risk of flooding. The green belt land that is north of the factory estate has all of these so I cannot see why it has been chosen for housing. West Horndon has been flooded a number of times in the past and building on this land can only increase the possibility of flooding in the future. Any flood relief scheme would increase the possibility of flooding south of the railway towards Bulphan.

The village school is over subscribed and any new housing would require children to travel to other schools. This would mean that small children currently living in West Horndon would be at a disadvantage of attending the village school and therefore would have to travel out of the village to another school as there is no local alternative school.

At present the secondary school children attending Brentwood County High School have to go by bus to the school and this school I understand to be at its full capacity, therefore where will any additional children attend school? The factory estate has been a problem to the village for sometime because it has had a change of use from manufacturing to warehousing which has increased the amount of lorry traffic through the village day and night. The lorries are quite considerable in size and during the night do not adhere to the speed limit along Station Road therefore interrupting the sleep of the occupants in Station Road. If the factory estate is not developed for housing a new road from the factory estate to the A127 would then stop the necessity for lorries to use Station Road and St Mary's Lane to get to the factory estate. Most of the occupants of West Horndon I believe would support the development of the factory estate for housing which would increase the number of dwellings within the village it would not swamp it and the number of lorries would decrease. The green belt designated for housing would swamp the village and I cannot understand why 43% of the future housing development within Brentwood area is designated for West Horndon which would change the nature of the village to the disadvantage to the existing residents.

There is mention in the report for the provision of a site for travellers. The location and size of this site is not indicated within the plan so I cannot see how any comments can be made if the information has not been provided.

The report in Justification 3.8 States [To ensure that the development takes into account long term community aspirations for the village the Council will seek a community master planning exercise to determine the precise scale, nature and siting of development and associated works] I would have thought that this should have been carried out before the Local Plan was issued so I could have commented on something that was detailed and not an outline with very little substance or detail.