A NEW wall that rises seven feet high in some places and has hogged residents' attention in Stanford-le-Hope will have to be pulled down.

That's the unanimous verdict of Thurrock Council planning committee members who tonight (Thursday, 2 December) decided the wall around a home on Second Avenue would have to do – despite a welter of public comment supporting the build.

Thurrock Nub News reported on the wall earlier this week and the comments by a leading local councillor calling for it to be demolished. The story prompted a huge reaction with a significant majority of residents saying the council was acting inappropriately in intervening.

However, that was not a view shared at tonight's meeting, which was addressed by the campaign ward councillor – and resident on Second avenue, Cllr Gary Collins who called for a retrospective planning bid to be rejected.

Councillors on the committee were united in opposition to the wall on the junction of Second Avenue and Southend Road, which was originally outlined as a much smaller affair with an approved application for an extension currently being built at the property.

Cllr James Halden, a fellow Homesteads ward councillor alongside Cllr Collins, said: "What has been applied for is not what has been approved. Southend Road is the most dangerous road in the Homestead so having a hulking wall on that bend is really less than ideal. I think there is something credible in that the planning committee has to take a hard line" while Cllr Steve Liddiard commented: "What are we doing putting up with a fortress?"

Cllr Sue Little threw in her lot by saying: "The whole thing looks like a prison. It's not right, it shouldn't be allowed, it's an over prominent feature, it's just wrong. They should do something about it,that would be the good neighbourly thing to do."

The third Homestead ward councillor Gary Byrne, who also sits on the planning committee alongside Cllr Halden, said the council should have been more active, earlier, saying: "The owners and builder and been told but they have gone ahead, We know the council is taking a softly, softly approach, not the heavy-handed one."

And, with the bulk of the wall now in place, he asked: "If we say no, will this wall come down quite quickly?"

Planning officers were unable to give him a specific answer, though Ian Harrison, who had presented the officer recommendation to refuse permission when asked to give a timescale, said: "It is not appropriate for me to say. Planning appeals can take months."