On Thursday, April 22, there was a meeting of the planning committee at Basildon Council. For those of you interested in such matters, here’s the link to the agenda: Agenda for Planning Committee on Thursday, 22nd April, 2021, 7.00 p.m. Trust us when we say there was a LOT to be interested in regarding this meeting… One of the items discussed was one of the proposed apartment developments that are a feature of the Basildon town centre masterplan, a.k.a. the ‘disasterplan’.

This is a brief comment about the discussion from the Basildon Community Residents Party:

The Labour/Ukipendent – Basildon Borough Alliance railroad through another high-rise planning application – this Eastegate development includes 27 high-rise towers!! Our Lead Member Jake Hogg spoke out against this backward thinking development and its human costs! Basildon Labour Group keep saying its only positive so here is a reminder of some of the negatives Jake highlighted! With 7 elected BCRP Councillors we can end the backroom deals destroying our town!

NO SOCIAL HOUSING AND VERY LITTLE “AFFORDABLE”

NO REAL INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE!

NOT FINACIALLY SUSTAINABLE DEPENDING ON MASSIVE MARKET GROWTH!

NO PARKING FOR AMBULANCES or PATIENTS AT THE (YET TO BE AGREED) HEALTH CARE CENTRE!

This is a Tweet made by the leader of Basildon Council, Cllr. Gavin Callaghan (Lab) after the conclusion of the meeting of the planning committee:

You’d expect this kind of immature comment from a snidey schoolkid but surely not from the leader of a council who you would hope would act with some degree of dignity. This is far from an isolated incident of Callaghan shooting his mouth off before engaging his brain.

For the moment, this is our response: