SOUTHEND ON SEA

There are many great reasons to come to Southend on Sea, here are just a few:-

The Longest Pleasure Pier in the world, with a train service too.

Probably one of the most iconic conference, meeting or wedding locations in the country The Royal Pavilion on Southend Pier.

The Forum on Elmer Square– Southend’s newest location and joint library venture with accademia. Upto 200 delegates in a state of the art facility or smaller rooms available and just two minutes from the station in the heart of the town.

The Cliffs Pavilion, our largest venue, upto 1600 delegates perched atop the cliffs with glorious estuary views and outside space to take in the sea air!

Excellent Hotels, many with estuary views and great conference, meeting and wedding facilities. why not try the Roslin Beach Hotel, The Park Inn Palace or the Westcliff for exceptional sea views and facilities. A tad further afield, all of 3 miles from the seafront, and only a 5 minute walk from the station is the Holiday Inn at Southend Airport with very interesting views and great facilities.

Southend has numerous small guest houses, nearly all have 3-4 stars and great sea views.

Southend is served by two train lines, C2C fom Fenchurch Street for 7 stations in the south and centre of the town and Gt Eastern from Liverpool Street for London Southend Airport and Southend Victoria. Trains run approx every 10 minutes peak and every 20 minutes the rest of the time- thats time two of course!

I should mention our great climate, over 7 miles of beaches, the wonderful fishing village of Leigh Old Town, the boutique and niche shopping area of Leigh on Sea, marine activities including kite surfing and many many interesting restuarants, the list just goes on….

What are you waiting for- all this and less than 1 hour from London

Details of the above locations and hotels can be found at http://www.visitsouthend.co.uk

hotels.com and tripadvisor

http://www.theforumsouthend.co.uk

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It’s All In The Name

So why one has to wonder does Southend Council think ‘Cultural Centre’ is a good one?  Let’s face it how many children or teenagers or even any visitor is going to get excited about visiting a ‘cultural centre’? indeed even our die hard locals are sceptical!

Would you hold your wedding or celebrate an important birthday in a ‘cultural centre’? Well I suppose a few might but surely ‘Pier Pavilion’ is better, especially if Southend is allowed to add Royal or Jubilee to it- The Royal Pier Pavilion or The Jubilee Pier Pavilion are both a little more exciting and in no way deter from the place being used for ‘cultural’ activities and there are a number of other possibilities along this theme – Southend Royal Pier Pavilion etc. It was put up in 2012 the Jubilee year after all and since we lost out as a city could we not please have a Royal Pier to reflect the Pier’s royal heritage or even a Royal to officially open it.

There are many uses that The Pier Pavilion could be used for- cultural events certainly, but also exhibitions, parties, weddings, fund raising events, mini conferences, artists at work days, lectures, school room etc and I firmly believe that labeling it as a ‘cultural centre’ will deter more than it will attract. So come on let’s get it changed before it’s too late, let’s put some sparkle into the end of our pier after all it is supposed to be fun!

 

These are my views and are not the views of the Southend Conservative Group or Associations.

H & M show confidence in Southend

Work on the new H&M Store in the old Woolworth’s building is well underway. Now lets be clear this not just a quick revamp of the TJ Hughes store, it is a major revamp. I applaud the active shop front on Alexandra Street, so much better than the awful blacked out windows of the Discount Store on Clifftown Road- Why did the Council allow this when it is against their policies of active shop fronts? The new shop front and entrance on the High Street looks contemporary and smart.

Now is the opportunity for the council to get behind the High Street and invest a little in maintainig it. It is about 10 years since the High Street was revamped and now it needs a little attention, perhaps some new seats and certainly the replacement of the cobbles. I am not talking consultants or mega bucks just the appliance of little common sense.
Many towns would be give their hind teeth for such an investment in the current economic situation and Southend has weathered the High Street decline relatively well, so let’s get behind this show of faith in Southend let’s use it to get Southend into the national press, the estates and retail trade press and to attract further investment from retailers prepared to invest in decent stores in our High Street.

 

 

 

The Forum at Elmer Square gets the go ahead!

Southend’s Development Control Committee has today approved the plans for the development of a new building at Elmer Square subject to the Committee approving the Management Plan for the proposed public display screen before its installation. elmer Square is off elmer Approach which was remodelled last year

The new building will be called ‘The Forum’ with
construction commencing in February 2012 and hopefully the new building will be opening to the public on 30^th September 2013.

The redevelopment of Elmer Square is a partnership between Southend-on-Sea
Borough Council, the University of Essex and South Essex
College of Further & Higher Education. The £26.9 million scheme will include an integrated municipal and academic Central Library and digital gallery, a modern teaching facility for South EssexCollege, and a stimulating research and learning environment for the University
of Essex.

The 9,450m² building will include a 203 seat lecture theatre, a new café, teaching space for approximately 600 students at any one time with study space for a further 450 students and will also be the new home of the Focal Point Gallery.

The new integrated public and academic library will include a main reading area approximately 40% bigger than the existing central Library, over 100 ICT stations and over 200 other seats. The Children’s Library will be located on the ground floor providing enhanced access whilst the building will be located in a new public square.

The new building will be funded jointly by the Council, the University of Essex and South Essex College .

Court fines Mr Pang £3000 for breaches in management of homes of multiple occupation

 Coincidentally while Mr Pang was in court, Southend was hosting a Landlord’s Forum where local landlords were being told about the new Landlord Accreditation Scheme. This new scheme which is available throughout Thames Gateway South Essex will recognise landlords who sign up to certain standards, undertake training and accept occasional random checks on their properties. Many landlords do a really goo job but are let down by the few who simply don’t care and it must be said that that not all tenants behave well. However, we have to find ways of stopping bad landlords and bad tenants from ruining our streets with neglect and by giving official recognition to the good landlords this is one step closer and will help responsible tenants in finding a good landlord.

Too many rented properties are poorly maintained which apart from not being good for tenants is also detrimental to other residents in the area. Southend cannot build enough new properties for all those wanting a home so we must make better use of our existing housing stock. There are too many roads of run down, predominantly rented properties were neither the tenant nor the landlord bothers, the sad thing is many of these roads  could be really delightful if the landlords and tenants just cared a bit more.

OYSTER CARD

After years of negotiations and a £40 million investment, Mayor Boris Johnson and the train operating companies have finally come to an agreement which means commuters will be able to touch in and out at all London  Network Rail stations from 2 January as well as on the Tube and bus network.

The move will make some journeys cheaper as passengers will not have to buy a separate ticket for the Overground.

More details at – London Evening Standard

This is being extended to Ockendon, I think it should be extended to Shoebury and Southend Victoria-

HSBC JOBS

Really sorry to read about the closure of  HSBC offices in Southend, must be truly awful for those involved. Southend Council will be doing all it can but frankly for those about to lose their jobs or having to relocate to Birmingham that’s probably little comfort. However, Southend’s Conservative administration  is trying to encourage more jobs into Southend through a range of major schemes, from improving the road access into and through the town, the regeneration of the Central seafront, ( City Beach), improved marketing, a major scheme for the Pier and lots of support for local business. We really intend to be  ready for the economic upturn when it comes in the next few years and hopefully some of those facing redundancy will find new employment here.

Arson, Rape, Vandalism, ……

Its been a bad August so far, the Officer’s Mess goes up in flames, though I understand some of it may be salvageable, I have asked to be kept briefed and to have a look around once it is safe etc. Then we read that there have been two rapes in the town centre and now 6 real time info signs at bus stops have been deliberately targeted and damaged. Ok, so the last is not as bad as the first two but its all symptomatic of a society thats going wrong. There is a general disrespect of people and property and its not just the young .

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IMPROVEMENTS UNDERWAY ON EAST BEACH

 How do you know what an independent will do?  Firstly Cllr Assenheim agrees to the scheme, he told officers at his briefing on East Beach that the proposals would deal with the problems and he stated in an e-mail –

“If he  (he being a local resident) did, in fact, tell you that I was opposed to many items of the proposals, he got the wrong end of the stick. What I did say to him was, personally I am in favour of the scheme only if, as I said at the Meeting, we have 100% enforcement on everything, otherwise I don’t agree. “

Cllr Assenheim receieved full details of the new enforcement regime and was assurred all cars would have payment enforced, within the realms of common sense.

Then he decides he is opposed to scheme and he and his new found convert from Labour, Ann Chalk, start a concerted effort to thwart the improvements by constantly requesting more and more info and raising more and more queries all of which the officers have to deal with. They have wasted time and money as officers have spent hours responding to them.

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improvements underway- East Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cars under a tree- East Beach

Independents have caused delay and expense but work commenced this week.

Please Comment

It all seems to happening a the moment, lots of letters about the Airport, e-mails from local residents about East Beach that are getting out of hand and loads of ward and portfolio things going on as well. 

The Airport Question
Where do I stand?- I generally support the proposal but I will be looking at all the comments received and any amendments very carefully before finalising my position.

Why am I generally in favour?

I believe that the new jobs are essential for the future economic well being of the town and the residents. Many of the 7000+ new jobs will be well paid jobs suitable for our younger residents that have either A’levels or a degree, if we do not provide good quality jobs for our younger residents they will be forced to move away and if we loose the next generation of good earners Southend will slowly die. I also believe that through a planning application to extend the runway we can condition and thus control the noise, type of planes, number of flights and number of night flights, all issues which those who object to the runway extention state as their reason for objecting. Yet if there is no planning approval there will be no control and the airport can continue as now with no controls. It will still be able to expand to 2 million passengers, it will just be harder and there will be more smaller planes, older noisier planes and more night flights.

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