Stop the proposed expansion of the pay & display car park of Southchurch Park East.

Stop the proposed expansion of the pay & display car park of Southchurch Park East.

Started
4 March 2020
Petition to
Southend-On-Sea Borough Council (Planning department)
Signatures: 3,795Next Goal: 5,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Jo Bates

In September 2019 Southend Council declared a Climate Emergency, and yet this week senior councillors are pushing for a scheme which will worsen Air Quality and congestion at Southchurch Park.

The suggestion from Cllr Woodley (Independent) to TRIPLE the size of the existing car park to a 300-space Pay & Display car & coach park on some of our last-remaining green space in the borough has caused outrage in neighbouring communities.

Cllr Woodley's proposals would involve creating a car park on the ground south of the existing car park. He said this proposal would be "ideal for parents dropping off and picking up their children at the nearby Greenways Primary School."

Southend already has one of the worst Air Pollution crises in the UK, and encouraging car travel to a park in a quiet residential area is not sensible. The Southchurch Park area is already served well by several regular bus services and the main seafront cycling route, and encouraging parents to use this new car park to take children to school will do nothing to help alleviate the air pollution and congestion around this area. 

We should be encouraging the creation of walking buses, and aiming to get children to school via environmentally-conscious and healthy active travel alternatives, such as walking and cycling. Many parents currently feel that sending their children to school on bikes in Southend is unsafe and that just highlights the core issue. With an integrated network of safe cycle lanes crossing the town and genuinely safe cycle infrastructure as the Greens advocate, parents needn't worry. 

Allocating crucial funding towards improving our cycling infrastructure is what is desperately required, and this kind of funding is currently being diverted towards building useless car parks by a climate-complacent council. 

You can’t persuade people to use public transport and adopt active travel whilst simultaneously making car usage more convenient.

Yet again, rather than tackle the core issues of congestion and car parking, our councillors are looking to build on Green spaces for a quick fix. 

Despite our council declaring a climate emergency (seemingly in name only), our councillors are still pushing for the extension of a facility for intra-town car usage which is wrong. 

In a time of unprecedented destruction of our natural environment, this is not what our town needs. 

We need to stand together and STOP this intended expansion. 

This area is a natural conservation area, it includes playing fields that so many local people enjoy in the summer, as do the local schools for their sports days.

The Southchurch Park East zone under threat is a beautiful natural area, with a freshwater lake; it’s home to wildlife like ducks, swans, and also several benches of remembrance. 

The area is used by a lot of local people, including dog walkers. 

This park has been a long-established green area with beautiful gardens, trail walks, and little brooks.

The inevitable increase in traffic coming to this newly-expanded car park will impact the already very polluted air in Southend. Diesel fumes from coaches parking at the proposed coach park will add to the risk our children are exposed to.

Sadly, the area has been known to suffer from antisocial behaviour that the council indeed need to correct, but it’s a wonderful park that so many generations have enjoyed.

There is a new sizable car park already on the seafront at the former Gas Works not that far from the proposed location, and this facility provides more than enough parking for the town's visitors.

Why should we as local people lose yet more of our already limited green natural areas in central Southend to accommodate yet more pay and display car parks. 
This campaign needs your help to help stop this expansion.

Southend is already full of pay-and-display car parks and roads.
This proposal will NOT encourage local people to the park, and it's not close enough to town to encourage people into the High Street as is claimed.

As your Thorpe Ward Green Party candidate, I urge everyone to help us stop this intended expansion of the Car Park, stop the tarmacking of this amazing local facility, and help us protect the environment from yet more pollution.

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Signatures: 3,795Next Goal: 5,000
Support now
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Decision-Makers

  • Southend-On-Sea Borough CouncilPlanning department