As promised by local campaigners, and expected by the wider public, hundreds of local people converged upon Southend Civic Centre last Thursday for the ‘Parkrally’, to oppose controversial plans to widen the A127/A1159 Priory Crescent, or ‘scheme F5’ as it has come to be known.
The event follows the recent ‘storming’ of the British Archaeological Awards celebration at Prittlewell Priory in January, when dozens of local residents disrupted an invite only ‘wine and cheese’ event held for local dignitaries, in celebration of the discovery of the East Saxon king’s burial, which would be destroyed, should the £25m road scheme get the go ahead.
Feelings continue to run high, with majority public opposition to the scheme repeatedly being shown by local groups, and press, six years into the campaign to stop the road.
Speaking from the steps of the Civic Centre, where a meeting of the full Council was taking place inside, campaigner and local resident Shaun Qureshi said, ‘Southend Borough Council are either somehow still ignorant of the fact that so many people continue to demonstrate, or they are arrogant enough to feel that they can simply push us aside.
‘They have only time and silence on their side, and the commonly held misconception that the scheme has already been canned by the Department for Transport, who would be required to provide the funding. The feeling that the scheme will not now go ahead is due to the delay in anyone in authority either taking any responsibility, or coming to a decision on the issue.
‘However, recent events have proven that despite this, significant numbers of the local public can still be mobilised to take action, that we do have majority support, and should the go-ahead be given, that there will be outrage across the town if attempts are made to evict Camp Bling, concrete over the burial or to destroy yet another green space.’
A decision to fund the road widening has been awaited from the DfT since a local Public Inquiry took place in March 2004. Information from the East of England Regional Partnership Group shows that costs have now risen to an estimated £25m for the 870 metre length of carriageway , making it potentially, ‘The most expensive stretch of road in the world.’