DESPITE a welter of objections from residents and an impassioned plea from a ward councillor, a majority of Thurrock planning councillors rode roughshod over local opinion and gave approval for a new vehicle and pedestrian access on an already crowded Grays street.

At Thursday's (2 December) meeting of the borough council's planning committee, approval was granted to the council's own application to make changes to Richmond Road and create the new entry point to the Alf Lowne Scout Centre.

Residents had argued that the impact of the new crossing would claim more than the two existing parking places planning officers said it would and that the new entry would add to parking and traffic problems in the road and those surrounding it because of a ripple effect of people having to move vehicles elsewhere.

Ward councillor John Kent said the council was acting prematurely with its plans and should take a pause and incorporate any changes in its ongoing development of the adjacent former adult community college site.

Plans for the college site have already caused a bitter war of words between ruling Conservative and opposition councillors, and the division was echoed at the planning meeting where the five Conservative members outvoted two Labour members and independent Cllr Gary Byrne.

Members of the planning committee were given details of the scheme. The vehicle access will be 4.8m wide and the pedestrian access 2m wide. The existing 1.6m high dwarf walling and galvanised steel railing boundary treatment will be replaced, for the width of the access, by matching galvanised steel gates that would be manual and inward opening.

Members were told that 16 letters of objection from local residents had been received with the main concerns relating to the potential for loss of off-street parking within the Alf Lowne Scout Centre, and loss of on-street parking on Richmond Road as a result of the proposals. Other comments received raised concerns regarding potential noise and additional traffic issues.

When he spoke, Cllr Kent pointed out that there had been 22 letters of objection, not the 16 reported to committee, and he added: "That's an incredible number of residents who have taken the time to let you know what their objections are."

He then highlighted what residents believe the consequences of the new entry will be, saying: "All the nearby roads already have huge problems but the parking situation on Richmond Road has been partly alleviated because of the car park on the adult community college,

"That's now been closed for some time, the loss of two roadside spaces plus the 20 in the car park is huge. We are building up an absolute nightmare for residents.

"I can't take this in isolation. We know the from the housing list that the old sports club on the site will have 20 houses on it and we are told that the adult college has space for 50 new homes,.

"This will change the whole character of that street and make parking an absolute nightmare for residents."

That was a view shared by local resident Carol Evans who addressed the committee saying: "We are strongly objecting to this planning application. Having read the council's response to letters it is clear the council can see no problems, but I would like to point out there will be plenty."

A number of councillors supported an initial proposal that they should have a site visit to see the reality of the situation, a move initially proposed by Conservative Cllr Sue Little who said: "I think we ought to and get the flavour of the place with a site visit. It is difficult to imagine it from all these plans."

Cllr Lee Watson expressed her concern that developing the site in a piecemeal fashion would cause problems in the interim, expressing her experience of sites where development has been delayed, leading to fly-tipping. "I don't want this to become a dump," while fellow Labour member Steve Liddiard shared her concern, saying: "This just doesn't seem to work for me."

Responding to calls for a site visit, Cllr James Halden took a different approach, saying: "We don't need a site visit. I don't disbelieve the residents and ward councillor. But I don't see a delay adding context. If we go we will see what this is, a very busy road, which we know it is and which our planning officers acknowledge it is."

Referring to wider concerns about the whole college site, he added: "We are a planning committee, not a regeneration committee, we have to look at this in planning terms. We have to judge this on its current merits and I don't see any material reasons why we should turn it down."

Cllr Byrne was in favour of a site visit, saying: "We have heard enough to see that we will be affecting the lives of residents by our decision so perhaps we should go for a site visit, if we don't I will be voting against this."

However the site visit vote was lost, with Cllr Little changing her mind and joining a majority who wanted a decision on the night. When that came it went 5-3 in favour of the recommendation to approve the application, with the Tories on the committee, Cllrs Little, Halden, Georgette Polley, Tom Kelly and Terry Piccolo voting for it and Cllrs Liddiard, Watson and Byrne against.