Southend Has No More Vacancies

No people, no problem!

With each new human being born to the world comes an impact on the environment, economy, and so on.

The world is vastly bigger than we can imagine and when you look at a map of say the United Kingdom, you will notice how much green space there is in comparison to urban areas.

When you look at Southend you will see this is not the case.

The government’s current target of 20,000 to be built in our city is ludicrous; we don’t have the space and there will be little green space left if the targets are to be met.

The population of Southend is not exploding. The only reason this target can be presumed to exist is because there will be an influx of people from outside of Southend.

Economically speaking, the more people there is to sell to, the more businesses are likely to grow and create more jobs. From that perspective Southend should build over every green space available and build as high as the atmosphere can take.

For the residents of Southend I am not so sure this is what we want. And for anyone attempting to convince us otherwise is being quite disingenuous and acting against the interests of Southend.

Our infrastructure is over-stretched already.

Even if we built a new hospital today and doubled the schools based on the 200,000 population of Southend that still would not be enough. This is why saying building more schools and hospitals is not sufficient.

It may sound extreme but Southend is bursting at the seams and can take no more.

We need our leaders to say “stop”.

There are many more places people can go and live happy lives. By pursuing targets of 20,000 we will have to come to terms with a city of concrete and endless queues for public services.

If not Southend, then where?

This is not a question for local government. The information on the most appropriate places to house people are with national government. This is merely a statement saying there is no more room here!

The coalition in Southend officially declared a ‘climate emergency’. Normally speaking when an emergency is called the reaction is immediate. In this case the reaction is for 2030!

Even so, it might be assumed that all green belt land would be sacrosanct yet this is not the case. The mere fact that 7,000 homes have been earmarked next to Bournes Green Chase is a direct contradiction to this.

The moment anybody mentioned the scheme, someone from the coalition needed to have reminded them about the ‘climate emergency’.

The problem for all of them is in reality no one in their local parties has any power to stop it. It really isn’t their decision and it is more a damage control exercise.

National parties, represented locally are not in a position to genuinely change anything. Their policies come from much further up the pay scale.

As a local independent party, we can say what we like and throw caution to the wind in our pursuit of doing what’s right for our city.

The argument that there are 2 options to address the housing issue is to either build on greenbelt land or built high-rise buildings is not complete. The third option is simply to say no more.

Are we trying to protect the environment or not?

Are we trying to improve public services or not?

The answers are simple.

Only Southend people who live and work in this city know the answers. And now it is time for all of us to raise our voices.

We must have Southend’s political voices stating an unequivocal no.