From: J. Bramble, Leighview Drive, Leigh.
I very much hope that residents took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the local elections on May 5 to register their verdict on the performance of Southend Council.
Whilst, as we know only too well, the council can ignore the majority viewpoint expressed in a consultation exercise, they cannot but accept the results of the ballot box.
I write as a resident of Blenheim ward and my wife and I have very much enjoyed our 16 years here. However, living directly under the flight-path to/from Southend Airport, we are naturally extremely concerned at the destruction of our quality of life that will inevitably result from the huge increase in air traffic facilitated by the extension of the runway.
The ‘airport issue’ was therefore unsurprisingly the dominant local one for us and for many of our friends and neighbours in the area. I was accordingly interested to read what the various candidates for the Blenheim ward said on the subject in their campaign literature and I would urge eery other Blenheim resident to do so; it is a most enlightening experience.
In his pamphlet Coun Clinkscales (Liberal Democrat), who was seeking re-election, obviously decided that the airport issue didn’t even warrant a mention – not one word!
For his part the would-be Conservative councillor, James Courtenay, did not shy away from the issue but had the effrontery to infer that the decision to approve the runway extension was taken out of concern for the residents of Blenheim!
It is undeniable that ‘no night flights’, if indeed this does materialise [it won't - the council and airport have agreed to 120 night flights a month], will be most welcome, but of course, there remains the other 16 or so hours of the day when planes are likely to pass low over the rooftops of houses and schools every ten minutes or so.
How precisely I wonder will Mr Courtenay, to use his own words, “ensure that the residents of Blenheim are protected” during this daily 16-hour period?
To conclude, how can the residents of Blenheim have any confidence in either of the two parties who have traditionally dominated the voting in this area – one which simply pretends that the airport doesn’t exist, the other which was pressured into carrying out a consultation exercise on it but, at the end of the day, had no compunction at all in disregarding the majority viewpoint expressed in the exercise?
However there did seem to be a chink of light in the third election pamphlet we have received – from Tino Callaghan who was representing UKIP.
He promised “straight talking” and “to work for an independent Southend” with locally binding referendums [referenda] on major local planning issues. Sadly, too late for the airport, but still a welcome breath of fresh air from someone who at least merited being given an opportunity to put his laudable aims into practice.
He can hardly do worse than the two main parties who may represent the area of Blenheim, but manifestly not the interests of the people living in that area!
