Yellow Advertiser
November 14, 2001

Priory Park campaign still needs support

I AM sorry to see that the Yellow Advertiser has stopped its campaign to save Priory Park.

The park is still not safe putting a dual carriageway along Priory Crescent and taking the road up to the edge of the park will mean cutting down all the trees on the roadside.

The pavement/footpath will have to go through the park. The trees in the park which will now be on the edge of the road will have to be cut back or cut down when the bulldozers move in to build the road.

The trees by the railway bridge will be cut down when the second rail bridge is built and all this to save two minutes travel time at rush hour? No, the reason for all this work is because there is a lot of money to be made by building an industrial estate at Fossetts Farm and more houses on the east side of Southend.

Paul Fox,
Woodfield Road,
Leigh
  • Editors note: Our campaign was specially designed to prevent the road being built thorugh the park. The campaign was a successfull one as Southend Council has now backtracked on the plans. However, we will continue to report future developments which may affect the park.

    What about our stadium?

    The thwarted, perhaps deservedly thwarted, plans of Southend Council to widen Priory Crescent by narrowing Priory Park have been put on ice or, at least, on the back-burner.

    I'm against bypasses. All that happens is that they become bottlenecks, corked in by traffic, blocked by clots in cars and more cars.

    But was this the usual high lordly caprice so often demonstrated by those petty power-mongers, otherwise known as Southend Council? Or was there insight in their insanity?

    Wasn't the whole point in the road-widening scheme that it was to provide access to a new improved stadium for Southend United, on land that has now been lost?

    Perhaps the plot was of a different sort. Any how, this is the story. But if the council chose to keep it a borough secret they have only themselves to blame for alienating people who might otherwise have agreed with them.

    Paul Divine,
    Northville Drive,
    Westcliff
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