brentwood.gov.uk

Having now had time to assess the proposed plan for Brentwood's development, as a West Horndon resident I write to express my thoughts and concerns for the plans for the village I live in, but firstly I would like to express my extreme disappointment to learn of such a large scale project proposal via the front page of the local newspaper, and without any prior notice or consultation with myself and fellow residents of what is in my opinion a truly great village, and one that should be treated with the equal respect that is shown by those people who have made it their home. I appreciate that work has been done in the last few weeks, and I am truly grateful to all those people involved within the local council and our own parish council, but to see front page news a few weeks back for a plan to treble the size of the population in the area that you live in is truly shocking. In a nutshell, on a personal note, trying to give you some perspective of how one receives such news, this projected plan leaves me, and I certainly feel many of my fellow residents, with a feeling of a lack of respect paid to us by this proposal, ft's unpleasant, it feels like an attack on your way of life, this is the reality, and I am concerned that such a likely reaction has not been considered well in this proposal, and if it actually has, I put it to you that there clearly exists a lack of respect for the people of this village. The sheer size of this project naturally delivers a threat to the way of life we enjoy here currently, and it doesn't take a genius to identify there are inherent risks, and that significant changes in infrastructure will be required. I am truly astounded that some of the key discussions that are critical to this project such as the impact on the local school, our roads, the increase on the rail-passengers, flood risk, do not seem to have been researched at all well at this stage, if at all. To hear this lack of research after learning of the project and its scale in your local paper is very disappointing. The people of West Horndon are a great community, and are worthy of better treatment, and a less dramatic and better researched proposal for change in their neighbourhood. Despite the positive intentions of this project, and one can of course understand these intentions and the opportunities that West Horndon may provide for new settlement, we should not ignore what makes this village great and the community it has become today. There exists within the plan a great risk of destroying this community as we know it with the scale of this project and the lack of research currently undertaken. I will now highlight my key concerns:

Scale
43% of the target new housing for Brentwood being allocated to West Horndon is far too excessive a figure despite the opportunities the village is deemed to bring. How on earth can the village be expected to bear this huge majority share of the borough's target new housing?. It is truly mindblowing, and again how do you expect residents to react? - and i f you were expecting such a response, I stress again you are knowingly showing a lack of respect to the people of West Horndon. A % figure this high should surely highlight to you that an unfair proportion is being allocated to West Horndon. People invested in their homes in this area due to the village's way of life. As my local council, I expected you to recognise and help me maintain this way of life. The changes you propose completely alter what was an easy decision to make West Horndon our home. Surely you can understand why such a huge project worries me? Especially one with such poor early research.

Top Down nature of this proposal.
As already mentioned, I am disappointed at the level of engagement with the residents in the early stages of such a huge proposed change to our way of life. I refer to the Localism Act here, which highlights the natural reaction and resentment that such actions bring.

Metropolitan Green Belt
I believe all Green Belt should remain so, show me a genuine person that doesn't. I would like to see the targeted Industrial Estates become housing, this part of the project I agree to be positive for both the existing village and the new settlements, but a more reasonable number of houses should be considered and debated with residents.

Sustainable Location
Due to the evident inadequacies that West Horndon has for such growth, there needs to be far better researched feedback to residents to enable people to make their own informed decisions on whether the area can remain providing services and a lifestyle that residents are currently used to. I have no confidence whatsoever currently that the village can be considered a sustainable location following such a dramatic change. This is critical, and from what I see currently, there is a huge amount of work to do to convince residents that sustainability is achievable.

The "Village" and its setting
Why do people choose to live in West Horndon? Why do people move to West Homdon? The answer is because it provides a countryside village enviromnent in a great borough that provides beautiful views, wildlife in abundance, a certain type of home for a certain type of individual/family, ft's not for everybody, but it has qualities that appeal to certain people. The small population and open space are some of these qualfties, and provide for the "village" status.

People
invest their life's savings here when they make this place their home, and they invest based on a typically quieter environment than the average town. Your proposed plan carries a huge risk to this investment, and i f one was to consider this in pure purchasing terms as some kind of "contract', would it be fair to say that what one has purchased has changed so much as to be something that the purchaser did not intend to purchase at the outset of the contract? Would West Horndon remain a village?

Roads
Traffic increase is a concern. The A127 is appalling at rush hour. The abolishment of the Industrial Estate provides for less HGV's, but the growth in smaller family cars will be huge. The roads are currently inadequate for this projected growth, and there is no sight of a convincing plan or strategy for the accommodation of this increased traffic.

Flood Risk
This risk is one close to my heart and a sensitive subject. Our home, and four of our neighbours were flooded throughout on Christmas Day 2012. The past year has been the most difficult of my
life, restoring our home, and endeavoring to maintain everyday life in the process. We lost our
next-door neighbour, a dear old lady, moved into temporary accommodation, shortly after the event. This change in lifestyle, albeit temporary, clearly had too great an impact, but I hope demonstrates the impact a dramatic change in lifestyle can have for some people. Sorry to paint this sad picture, but its fact, and I do so you can understand the significance of this flood event. A not so merry Christmas, a holy flood maybe? Our home was flooded in every room, the entire house is currently still being restored, room by room. I remind you that I am a resident in Brentwood. I have heard nothing whatsoever from Brentwood Council, which is fine, we've coped and I'm not sure to what extent you would get involved in such an event, so can only assume there seems no interest in this catastrophe, yet at the same time I am faced with the prospect of a repeat event. I put it to you that unless I consider some significant changes to my landscape, I will remain exposed to the peril of flood despite the ditch at the back of my property, which clearly is inadequate to withstand flooding.

That's obvious, its happened once, and the landscape remains unchanged. I ask you do you really
understand the risk imposed by flood in this village, and if so, why did my property flood?

Additionally, can you please explain why the new housing will not be exposed to flood, and
additionally whether similar precautionary work can be carried out on my own property.

Summary
I hope that I have managed to get across the concerns my family have with this project, and hope
that my criticisms will be viewed constructively, and that we accept that some housing would be positive, certainly in place of the current industrial area. I have been as honest as possible with my response, and hope that our reaction to this proposal can be understood to be a natural one, and one based on very real risks and concerns.

My family and I totally respect the need for the provision of housing for a growing population, but West Horndon is completely misunderstood in this proposal, with a short-sighted emphasis really based in my view on a station which happens to have lots of open land around it. There is extremely poor research and non-existent planning currently into the needs of the area to respond to such a significant change, and this added to the ignorance of people's reasons for choice of investment here, making the village their home, leaves me currently very disappointed for the first time since my arrival in Brentwood from London 10 years ago. Brentwood is a truly great borough, and we should all be proud of it. West Horndon is a great village, and we are proud to call it our home, and we truly hope it can remain so for the future.