Southend environmental pressure group holds first public meeting
By Rachel Charman
The Saxon King In Priory Park (SKIPP) committee staged its first public debate event on Saturday 6th February.
The event, held in Westcliff, was reportedly well-attended, and focused on the group’s objections to Southend Borough Council’s Cuckoo Corner road developments.
A spokesperson for SKIPP told Councilbust.com:
“We were able to reveal information gleaned after painstaking research, which is confusing and vague, or just not shown on the Council’s published plans.
“However, despite uncovering much the public has not previously been privy to, the plans are so vague it is proving very difficult to pin down just what the scheme is about.”
SKIPP claims that the public support them in their objections to the development of Cuckoo Corner, which they see as “pointless”. The group also claims that installing traffic lights at the junction will lead to “frustration and traffic chaos” and that the current roundabout “functions perfectly well.”
The group, as its name suggests, was set up originally in opposition to the Council’s plan to widen the road around Priory Park, potentially threatening the site where the remains of a Saxon King were found in 2003.
A group of protestors squatted on the site for six years in a sit-in protest known as “Camp Bling”.
Since then, the remains have been taken to the Museum of London as there were no adequate facilities in Southend to properly care for such a rare find.
The Council regained control of the site in July 2009 after agreeing to refrain from carrying out any developments on the Saxon King site, and mark the site with commemorative plaque.
The Council’s development of Cuckoo Corner, due to start in June 2010, will cost £5 million.
On the official webpage detailing the plans, the Council states that “the new plans ensure that no space will be taken from Priory Park, and allows for further education excavation to take place on the site of the ‘Prittlewell Prince’ as legally required.”
The developments will include the installation of new traffic lights to reduce long queues, which the Council claims will save 400 hours of driver waiting time a day.
Other aims of the development include improved capacity on the roundabout by increasing the lanes from two to three; introducing an additional lane from the Prince Avenue approach; an extra lane on the Priory Crescent exit; and improved pedestrian access across the junction by installing signalised crossings at Victoria Avenue and Priory Crescent.
The stated time saving is not 400hours it is actually 400mins (Outlook winter 2009, SSBC Cabinet report DETE09108 22/09/2009)), this represents a negligible time saving per vehicle.
Mark Sharp
SKIPP Committee