Residents vent anger at village homes schemes (From Thurrock Gazette)

Residents vent anger at village homes schemes

3:00pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News

ANGRY villagers have hit out at plans to build more houses in Aveley.

More than 200 people packed out the hall at Aveley Primary School to hear a presentation from Thurrock Council’s Richard Hatter at Aveley Village Community Forum’s latest meeting.

Fears were raised about how the roads, drains, schools and doctor’s surgeries would cope if hundreds of homes are built in the area.

Mr Hatter said this was the best turnout he had ever seen at one of the meetings.

He said: “The purpose of me coming down is because we are doing another consultation on our plans until March 1.

“The purpose of this plan is to set out sites for development and we want communities to put their views in.

“Although the deadline is March 1, I don’t mind if some of the forms come back a little bit later.

“The council wants to move forward with this plan as soon as it can.”

The Gazette has reported about plans to build 500 new homes on the former London Fire Brigade Sport and Social Club site.

Coupled with 340 homes planned for the bypass, and plans to build 36 new homes on the Old Washmill site, this could see more than 850 new homes in the village.

The Thurrock Core Strategy sets out a blueprint for the development of Thurrock up to 2026.

Residents also spoke about the Aveley bypass site plans, which the defunct Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation approved in August 2009, despite it being opposed by Thurrock Council’s planning committee.

And they raised fears the ground is contaminated with harmful chemicals. Ian Allison, who lives in the village, said: “You have got to take it down further than 6ft, you need to take it down at least 16ft.

“It was a big pit. Testing was never done deep enough.”

Documents detailing the council’s plans can be seen in libraries or at www.thurrock.gov.uk