MP Celebrates ‘Big Win’

A SOUTH Essex MP celebrated with his constituents after scoring what he described as a ‘big win’ at a meeting of Rochford District Council’s Development Control Committee meeting, at the Mill Hall, in Rayleigh.
The Committee meeting, which was attended by some 200 residents, discussed a controversial planning application by developers Taylor Wimpey, to build 350 houses in the Green Belt, at Mount Bovers Lane, Hawkwell.
The Rayleigh and Wickford MP, Mark Francois, spoke against the application, as the local MP and raised objections on the grounds of contravention of Rochford’s Local Plan; the site being firmly in the Metropolitan Green Belt; the unsustainability of the site; potential loss of amenity for local residents and an official objection by Anglian Water, on the grounds that local water treatment facilities cannot cope with the extra demand that would be generated by all the new houses.
After some three hours of intense debate, Coun Adrian Eves, from Hawkwell, moved that the application should be refused.
Mr Francois told the Committee, on the night: “I am an MP and not a councillor. I do not sit on the Development Committee and I do not have a vote on this planning application – or indeed on any other one.
“However, I do have a voice and I am using it tonight to urge the Committee to vote down this application.”
When it came to a decision, the Committee voted unanimously to reject Taylor Wimpey’s application. The matter will now be referred to a public inquiry in September, at which Mr Francois is already preparing to give evidence, on behalf of his constituents, against the application.
Picture: Mark Francois MP celebrating with Save Mount Bovers campaigners, after Rochford District Council voted to refuse the planning application to build 350 houses in the Green Belt at Hawkwell.
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