West Leigh Residents’ Association
1578 London Road
Leigh-on-Sea
Essex
SS9 2QR
14 December 2006
Head of Planning and Transportation
Department of Enterprise, Tourism and the Environment
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Civic Centre
Victoria Avenue
Southend-on-Sea
Essex SS2 6ER
Dear Sir,
A number of residents have recently been raising concerns about the high incidence of damaged pavements in the West Leigh area and also about the ever-increasing number of advertising boards appearing outside shops, bars and restaurants particularly along the Broadway.
As you will be well aware, the amount of building work that is taking place across the Borough is at an unprecedented level. Unfortunately what also seems to be increasingly happening is that contractors’ vehicles are mounting the kerb and driving across pavements and grass verges in order to gain access to the numerous building sites. This practice invariably results in broken pavements and damaged verges and this is both dangerous to pedestrians and unsightly in the neighbourhood. As an example of this I would draw your attention to the work being carried out at the property on the junction of Western Road and Canvey Road (06/00423/FUL).
I believe that
for larger schemes the developers place a deposit with the Council as an
indemnity for “making good”. I would be grateful if you could provide my
Association with figures showing how often these deposits are used to
re-instate the public highway.
However, smaller building works also cause considerable
damage (as the one quoted above) and I am sure no deposits are made in these
instances. Whilst residents commend the Council for their work on repairing
damage, it is felt that the cost of this relatively minor work should not be
met from taxpayers money. Could you please also reassure residents that you do
charge the owners for this repair work?
A year or so ago one shop along the Broadway
in Leigh placed a-frame style advertising boards on the pavement outside their
shop. As nothing was done about this, the number of such boards has
proliferated and the situation is now so bad that in places, particularly
outside Clements Arcade, the pavement is seriously obstructed, especially so on
a Saturday. These boards are not placed close to the buildings – outside cafes
they are placed beyond the sitting-out areas, in other places they are placed
alongside the kerb. These advertising boards not only cause unnecessary
congestion, they are also a danger to the elderly and the visually impaired. My
Association would be grateful to hear that the Council will be taking action to
mitigate the impact these boards are having.
Yours sincerely,
E. G. Cornish (Eddie)
Chairman, West Leigh Residents’ Association