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'Hospice and homes bid is a good one' (From Thurrock Gazette)
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'Hospice and homes bid is a good one'
8:00am Thursday 28th February 2013 in News
THE man behind plans to build 80 homes and a hospice near Horndon-on-the-Hill has moved to ease concerns raised about the development.
Thurrock Council has included the proposal, for Lower Dunton Road, within a large consultation on future developments in Thurrock that ends on Friday.
But last week Horndon councillor Sue Little, pictured right, called the plan “horrendous”, saying the site was not appropriate and expressing a wish not to see the green belt developed on.
But Eddie Wright, who owns Langdon Hills Golf Club, in Lower Dunton Road, has been in talks with the council over the development for the last five years and said there is a long way to go before anything is decided.
He said: “I’ve been trying to get a hospice in Thurrock for five years. I suggested Thurrock Council comes down and looks at this site. What I said was if we could raise some money through housing, we could build a hospice here.
“The council put 80 houses in the consultation as they felt this is what would be required to make the development financially viable, but until a viabilty study is done, nothing will be decided.
“It could be 40, 50 or 60 houses, it depends what’s viable.”
He added: “The reason that site is more favourable is because that’s where St Luke’s Hospice wants to be. It’s tranquil and it’s close to their existing site. But it’s a few miles from Horndon-on-the-Hill.
“The only person who’s got any views on that site is my golf course. It’s opposite. I’m not going to see anything bad go there.
“Thurrock wants aspirational housing, so that’s what it will be.
“The new port wants a lot of their executives to stay in the area so this development will offer them aspirational homes.
“With provisions such as schools, there will be a big contribution of potentially £5,000 per house built which could go towards a new school in the area and I’m sure we could get a bus that runs from that site.
“It’s all in the early stages, but we need more care in the borough and the council have said that.
“There’s a long, long way to go.”
Comments(2)
Bernard 87
says...
12:58pm Thu 28 Feb 13
To put 80 houses in this area would ruin the green belt and would open up the floodgates with people buying farms and then applying for planning permission years later. Golf courses should not be allowed to sell off any of their land (like St Cleres).
To show how weak Thurrock planners are in comparison to elsewhere in Essex - In Epping Forest a developer proposed to build a golf course in a village not far from Chingford after attempting to put houses on this site. The council rejected the golf course as residents had a feeling that once he converted part of the site into a golf course he would then reapply for housing on the remainder. For the last 5 years this site has been left open, as it should be.
If that village was in Thurrock it would have houses on it by now.
We have to allow development in places that are suitable and this location in Horndon is not. I do not want to see every village in Thurrock having a drab housing estate stuck onto it full of 'aspirational housing' (or pokey modern builds to most folk)
coddy says...
8:26am Thu 28 Feb 13