§ Dr. Michael Clark (Rochford)With permission, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I present a petition
To the Honourable Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.The humble Petition of the residents of South Woodham Ferrers and the surrounding area.The petitioners state that they are opposed to the creation of a gipsy encampment on the old concrete batching plant in South Woodham Ferrers. They point out that, in 1974, Essex county council promised that the site would be public open space. In 1984, it was designated as within the coastal protection belt, with the most stringent development restrictions placed upon it. Developments that adversely affect the character of that rural and open area are not permitted.The residents of South Woodham Ferrers are, and have been since the new town was developed, prevented by restrictive covenants from parking caravans on their own property, yet there is now a proposal to bring in caravans belonging to strangers from outside the area and allow them to park legally in the town where other caravans are prohibited.
The petitioners point out that the new town, which is built on a riverside and advertised as a rural country town with a riverside nature and a rural environment, will be spoilt by bringing a gipsy site into the town.
The petition is signed by 315 residents of the town. It is backed up by another substantial petition, with over 5,000 signatures on it, being more than half the adult population of the town of South Woodham Ferrers. The petition concludes:
Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House do urge the … Secretary of State for the Environment to intervene in the proposal by Essex County Council, to locate a gypsy site within or within proximity to South Woodham Ferrers. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.
§ I beg leave to present the petition.
§ To lie upon the Table.