RESIDENTS in Bulphan will get the chance tomorrow to have their say about how the village is being developed.

A significant number of planning applications, including approved developments, have focused on the village and surround countryside in recent years. And the approval has included large solar farms being laid out in the green belt.

Tomorrow (Friday, 12 August), representatives from Thurrock Council will be in the village at the Village Hall between 1.30 and 4pm to learn more about what local people think.

It is part of an ongoing process. The council says it has already gone some way towards gaining the ideas from Bulphan residents as to what needs to be preserved in the area and what needs to be added or improved.

Here are initial ideas they have gathered:

• maintain/preserve Bulphan's separation from other villages/towns
• control much more vigorously scrappy unplanned light industrial development and yards
• invest in and support the positive community spirit (Bulphan in Bloom, events at the Village Hall, village organisations)
• Gated communities and other forms of segregation detract from the community spirit and should be discouraged in future
• walking and cycling access is along busy roads, little in the way of footpaths: this should be reversed so residents are less reliant on driving
• the A128 is a busy intrusion, improvement is needed to resolve the safety, noise, air pollution and light pollution issues caused
• the key buildings and green spaces in Bulphan need to be given more protection.

A spokesperson for the village community forum says it is an opportunity to give full vent to frustrations and also highlights some areas that appear to have been missed on the council's radar, saying: "Do come along tomorrow and let them know what you think about these initial ideas, how they will be put into practice, and other issues they have missed. (no mention of flooding, access to secondary schools, bizarre new executive (incongruous) developments, etc etc - I'm sure you have lots of other matters to share with them."