PO Box 5909
Southend-on-Sea MLO
Short St
Southend-on-Sea
SS1 1AA
http://www.saen.org.uk
committee@saen.org.uk
Mr. Shaun Scrutton,
Head of Planning and Transportation,
Rochford District Council,
South Street,
Rochford,
Essex
Dear Mr Scrutton,
I am recently in receipt of information that the latest stage of the JAAP Consultation elicited about ten thousand responses before the close of the response period. I have no doubt that the response analysis has by now been completed, and I am aware that you have no wish to release the full analysis until such time as it suits your purposes to do so.
There is no doubt that most of those ten thousand responses will have declared support or objection to the runway extension. For Rochford District Council to continue to withhold the analysis of the responses whilst the planning application deadline barely leaves time for another round of objections to be heard is nothing short of disgraceful.
There is a great deal of unrest among people who live below the flight path in the Southend area, and increasing unrest amongst the population of Rochford upon reading that more flights are intended to be directed over Rochford if weather permits.
The country has recently lost faith in Government ministers over issues of secrecy and is likely to lose faith in its local council if it suspects that similar things are happening at the town hall, and are likely to bear all this in mind during next year’s local and governmental elections.
SAEN would like you to reconsider your approach to holding back on the release of JAAP response analysis, so that we can all move forward in an open and frank manner. We have written to both MPS to outline the current situation, and subsequent press releases may well depend upon your response to this letter. I urge your immediate attention to this matter,
Yours sincerely
Kiti Theobald (chairman)