The Association has a long history of campaigning about issues affecting the quality of life of the residents of West Leigh. For over seventy years it has been a leading community group committed to representing the views of local residents and working with the Council, local councillors and other groups to ensure that Leigh remains an attractive place to live.

During the previous twelve months the Association has, amongst other things, worked with local councillors to improve road safety along the Western Road, has made representations to the Post Office about the closure of local post offices and has successfully fought for the re-instatement and refurbishment of the public toilets in the Highlands shopping area.

It is anticipated that during the next twelve months the Association will be involved with the London Road improvement scheme as it reaches Leigh, with the continuing battle to protect the character of Leigh from the onslaught of the housing developers and with the car parking problems which beset the neighbourhood.
As well as pursuing such issues independently, West Leigh Residents Association also works with other groups to address matters which affect the Borough as a whole - for example, the Association has seats on the Leigh Crime Prevention Panel and on Biodiversity and Environmental Awareness Working Party and is a member of COBRA, the Coalition of Borough Residents Association.

Owing to its reputation as an active community group, the Association is also invited to participate in many of the consultation exercises carried out by the Council - it has contributed to the London Road planning discussions, it joined in the Borough-wide "Southend Together" workshop, it attends several annual cultural and environmental conferences and it represents local residents at the Business and Ratepayers Consultative Forum.

During the year the Association holds open meetings at which members get to together to socialise and to discuss matters of common interest. Each open meeting has a theme with a guest speaker and a follow-up question and answer session.