These are some photographs sent in by one of our comrades from Basildon & Southend Housing Action (BASHA) showing the ‘progress’ Basildon Council have been making in desecrating St. Martin’s Square as they re-locate the town’s market there…









St. Martin’s Square used to be a pleasant, tree filled oasis where, when the weather was right, visitors to the town centre could take some time out from their busy schedule to sit and relax. Basildon Council in their offices on the other side of the square didn’t see it that way – all they saw was a space that in their eyes wasn’t bringing in any revenue. They have a narrow, meanly utilitarian mindset that puts a price on everything but fails to see any value in a space that offers people a chance to rest and re-charge their batteries.

In a changing retail climate with people spending less because they don’t have enough money or if they do, increasingly spending it online or at regional malls such as Lakeside or Bluewater, relying solely on retail is not going to create a balanced, attractive and viable town centre. That simple fact has escaped the myopic bean counters at Basildon Council who seem to think that if they make a few cosmetic changes to the town centre, the shoppers will come flooding back. They’re living in the past but if you try telling them that, they’ll arrogantly brush you aside because as a mere resident, your views don’t matter outside of election time…

We wrote about the complex planning chain which is leading to this desecration back in July: Falling apart… – https://southessexstirrer.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/falling-apart/ Well, Dry Street is being transformed from meadows to an executive housing estate which will do sod all to alleviate the (massively rigged and shrunken) waiting list for social housing in Basildon. As you can see from the photographs above, St. Martin’s Square is being covered with permanent structures whose rents could well be out of the reach of a lot of the traders currently operating in the existing market. We suspect that the new market is being pitched at a different kind of trader catering to a more affluent customer base. Well, good luck with that in a town that’s experiencing more poverty as pay levels stagnate and decline!

There’s another piece in this complex planning jigsaw…the re-location of the Basildon campus of South Essex College to the site of the existing market. Will it ever happen? Who knows… It is a well known fact that the Basildon campus is being run down with some departments such as motor mechanics being re-located all the way over to Rayleigh. We’ve heard anecdotal reports from staff at the Basildon Campus suggesting they’re being kept in the dark about their future and are feeling increasingly de-moralised as a result…

Despite all of this, the myopic bean counters at Basildon Council see all of this as ‘progress’. This is what you get with a system of local governance and a planning system that actively excludes resident participation in any decision making. This is why we say that the system we have is no longer fit for purpose and why radical change from the grassroots upwards is needed sooner rather than later…