RESIDENTS in Aveley will be canvassed in the High Street tomorrow for their views on a proposed new logistics hub planned near the village.

The census of opinion by opponents of a planned new logistic park in the area have arranged the event in the wake of two community meetings in the past week.

Aveley and Kenningtons Community Forum met on Monday (17 October) and Purfleet-on-Thames Community Forum the following evening and the main topic of discussion was the proposed Mardyke Park logistics hub.

Opposition to the scheme has already been registered by some residents and more disquiet about the plans was expressed at the two latest meetings when James Bompas, a representative of the Iceni Group, spoke for the developers.

He outlined their plans, which include seven warehouse buildings, a roundabout on Ship Lane giving access, plus a new community hub building and leisure facilities, which may include a cricket square, a running track, and a children's playground.

They would also widen the existing public footpath alongside the Mar Dyke, creating a boardwalk open as a bridleway to horses, cyclists, and walkers.

Opponents of the logistics centre picketed a recent public meeting about it at Aveley FC.

The Aveley and Kenningtons meeting was attended by, among others, residents of the adjacent caravan site on Ship Lane, whose residents will be most directly affected by the plans.

They expressed anger as they said had not received any notification from the developers of the plans, and only became aware of the plans when Sue Hewer, the Chair of the Forum had visited them to tell them of the meeting.

Their concerns centred around noise from the site (which is asking for 24 hour a day operations); threat to the local wildlife, increased traffic on Ship Lane and, being very aware of the flooding risk from the Mar Dyke river they said it does seem inappropriate land for building or leisure facilities.

Other residents of Aveley also raised questions. In particular, there was a discussion around the proposed roundabout on Ship Lane by the current entrance to the Thurrock Hotel.

Mr Bompas said that this was to allow any HGV driver who mistakenly drove up Ship Lane, to turn around and not go through the village.

There has historically been a problem with HGVs going through Aveley. However, a resident argued that the developers overstated the size of the problem, claiming that nearly 400 HGVs go up and down Ship Lane every day.

A resident of Ship Lane said she had conducted her own survey over 24 hours using her camera doorbell. The number of HGVs she recorded was five, including a delivery lorry and a bread van.

An audience member then questioned how helpful the roundabout would be for residents, and said that it may in fact be more useful to the developers for providing access to their site. The meeting, which was a public meeting and not confined to Forum members, finished with a show of hands, with 15 present opposing the plans, four undecided and none in favour.

The following evening, Mr Bompas attended the Purfleet-on-Thames Community Forum, where he again presented the plans. There were further questions.

One resident was particularly concerned about adding to traffic in the area, as Purfleet-on-Thames is often highly congested with lorries from the port. The fact that the development was proposed on Grade 3 flood plain land (the highest category) was also a major concern.

One aspect of the discussion concerned jobs in the area.

Developers say that this would provide more than 700 local jobs.

However, it was noted by one resident that warehouse jobs were very difficult to fill, with a high turnover. Mr Bompas said that many of the warehouses were moving to automated methods for many of these jobs, so maybe they would not need such a high number of employees.

There was also a discussion about the maintenance of the community facilities proposed, including the building and the playground and sports facilities. This would be the responsibility of the businesses on the site, and they would be open to their employees during the day.

This would save the expense for the council but the onus would then be on the businesses to continue with this maintenance, and residents would have to trust that this would take place.

There was also a question about safeguarding of children using the playground, which Mr Bompas admitted he hadn't yet considered.

Finally, there was a question on the overarching needs of the environment.

The developers claim that the buildings would be 'operationally carbon neutral'; however, they said that clearly the construction process and the vehicles using the site would generate much carbon, and that there would be loss of the carbon sink that the green belt in that area provides.

The wildlife that lives there was also a major concern of attendees at the meeting, as it also was at the Aveley and Kenningtons meeting.

Agents for the developers did attempt an explanation of how the logistics park would be positive in terms of biodiversity, but did not deny that this would be a green belt development, and the area would lose a large natural wildlife habitat.

Objectors to these plans, Aveley's Green Belt Action Group (AGBAG) will be in Aveley High Street tomorrow morning (Saturday, 22 October), with a petition, if anyone wants to go along and find out more.