Education, deprivation and the abilities of Canvey residents to digest a Plan.

Do Canvey Island residents need a Neighbourhood Plan?

Whether to consult Canvey residents for them to decide on the question, was the debating Item 8 on the Agenda for the Canvey Island Town Council, last evening.

The main concerns raised appeared to be the potential cost and whether the residents, when consulted, would have a false image of what a Canvey Island Neighbourhood Plan (CINP) might achieve.

The council members perception being that residents may assume that development, granted permission by Castle Point Council, could be halted.

The decision taken was for a working group to be formed to look into the merits of a CINP, and how best to inform the residents of its implications prior to their consultation, with a view to report back to council by June 2016.

The Canvey Green Belt Campaign group obviously welcome the initiative, however we would like to address some of the initial concerns raised.

Costs, there are Government grants available up to £14,000. Much of the information in support of a CINP is available and published within the Castle Point Local Plan evidence base. The Canvey Town Council website appears to indicate a respectable balance sheet and annual running costs. Once a Neighbourhood Plan was entering its mid to final stages, may cost residents between 1 – 2p per week per household.

Are Canvey residents well-informed enough to make a decision on whether a Neighbourhood Plan should be undertaken?

I suggest that this question should be put into some context.

Shortly the population of the UK will have a vote on remaining or leaving the European Union. The complexities of the issues are debateable, manifold and the implication of residents making the wrong decision will likely have a long lasting financial and political effect on us all. And yet given the disputed information coming from supporters of both sides, it is beginning to look like the referendum may be about choosing between the lesser of two negatives.

In the recent past, consultation has been carried out on the Castle Point Council Local Plan. You will remember perhaps the increased interest, following the demise of the Core Strategy, when the contentious issue of mainland Green Belt sites were included in the selection of sites intended for Housing Development causing much Press coverage and resident groups consternation.

The much maligned Castle Point Local Plan version II documented that;

” Questionnaires were sent to 39,911 residential and business addresses. 3,798 responses were received, giving a response rate of 9.52%.”

Considering the Questionnaires were an A5 four page leaflet, I would have thought it impossible that residents would be expected to fully grasp and understand the implication of such an in depth document as a Borough Local Plan.

Compared with both the EU referendum and Castle Point Local Plan consultation, a Canvey Neighbourhood Plan consultation appears less daunting an undertaking for residents to get their heads around.

One resident at the meeting did object to the views of Castle Point council on Canvey residents. He pointed out that in CPBC’s opinion, published in the Local Plan 2016, Canvey and us residents were considered to be;

Compared with other parts of the borough Canvey Island is relatively more deprived, with pockets of income and employment deprivation, and wider issues associated with the education and skills of residents.

Reading that assessment, it might comes as a surprise that we are invited to actually vote in the Borough Elections given our purported lack of education and ability to grasp the possible implication of issues!

Perhaps a Neighbourhood Plan, is just the exercise to compare the plan creating abilities against  those that choose to judge us, sitting within Runnymede Towers!