Southend Pier plan set to go ahead (From Southend Standard)

Yet again well done Southend Council regardless who pays.

Another example of doing what they were elected to do improve the crumbling Victorian infrastructure and improve amenities.

To Date:
Road improvements
Seafront improvements
Cycling pathways
Southend Airport
New Toilet facilities Chalkwell
Excellent new children's playground equipment.
PLANTING TREES (up yours V)

All will help generate wealth that will be needed to pay benefits to all the moaners, protesters and asylum seekers.

Good news, as I thought that the plan was dead and buried.

evilc wrote:
Yet again well done Southend Council regardless who pays. Another example of doing what they were elected to do improve the crumbling Victorian infrastructure and improve amenities. To Date: Road improvements Seafront improvements Cycling pathways Southend Airport New Toilet facilities Chalkwell Excellent new children's playground equipment. PLANTING TREES (up yours V) All will help generate wealth that will be needed to pay benefits to all the moaners, protesters and asylum seekers.

Wait for V ot attack...

Lets hope people support this plan for breathing new life into the pier something is better than nothing.

This will give the pier a much needed boost.

I agree a lot of really nice work coming from the council maybe they can sort the cliffs out as well.. But I think its more to help hang on to power this close to an election rather than for the betterment of Southend really look at the timing of it all ,at the same time if this is what it takes to get some work done .. Still wish we had the rollercoaster on the end of the peer that was a much better plan "the worlds largest over water rollercoaster "and someone else footing the bill at the same time but cant have everything .

Something had to be done. At last it is. Maybe private ownership is the best way forward for the future of the pier as suggested in another article. But at least this means the pier will be useable again, rather than 'just' a breezy walk (or ride).

Excellent news.

More good news.

What a fantastic few weeks it has been for Southend.

Say what you will aboit this council but I for one think they are doing a pretty good job with improvements to our town.

Well done.

It is excellent news. I liked the original design (although I did think I was on my own with that). Clearly not.

evilc wrote:
Yet again well done Southend Council regardless who pays. Another example of doing what they were elected to do improve the crumbling Victorian infrastructure and improve amenities. To Date: Road improvements Seafront improvements Cycling pathways Southend Airport New Toilet facilities Chalkwell Excellent new children's playground equipment. PLANTING TREES (up yours V) All will help generate wealth that will be needed to pay benefits to all the moaners, protesters and asylum seekers.

Absolutely. Totally agree.

I am still waiting for the V2 attack!!

i just want them to revive the plan to install a giant catapult to launch commuters to Kent.. one of renascence southends less publicised ideas... i think there is a graphic for it somewhere lol on a serious note good news and please build a pub at the end and a decent non-fussy cafe. i want a cup of tea not a modern art instillation. if this happens then its fine by me

How many times have we heard this?And just incase it does get the green light Will it be insured

Once again the Council are hell bent on the big production. The pier needs diversity and back to basics. Simple seaside entertainment, shelter from the English Seaside Weather, decent nosh would be a good start. The upper class culture bit can come later. So let's have some jam today, we've waited 36 years for some. Please no more plans in the meantime, we've had enough to fill an encyclopedia just get on with it. I won't hold my breath in the meantime but I do like surprises.

evilc wrote:
I am still waiting for the V2 attack!!

Same here, still got a few spare places in the air raid shelter if anyone wants one, tea and jam sarnies laid on!

(bring your own sleeping bag)


I too would have loved the coater but the problem with it is the weather, being stuck in a high salt environment in salt water would have caused a major corrosion issues with the fabric of the ride. then there is the fabric opf the pier and the high volume of people wanting to ride it.

just do it, get on with it and stop talking about it.......... will be good for the town...

evilc wrote:
Yet again well done Southend Council regardless who pays. Another example of doing what they were elected to do improve the crumbling Victorian infrastructure and improve amenities. To Date: Road improvements Seafront improvements Cycling pathways Southend Airport New Toilet facilities Chalkwell Excellent new children's playground equipment. PLANTING TREES (up yours V) All will help generate wealth that will be needed to pay benefits to all the moaners, protesters and asylum seekers.

could not agree more. well done the council........

SARFENDMAN wrote:
Once again the Council are hell bent on the big production. The pier needs diversity and back to basics. Simple seaside entertainment, shelter from the English Seaside Weather, decent nosh would be a good start. The upper class culture bit can come later. So let's have some jam today, we've waited 36 years for some. Please no more plans in the meantime, we've had enough to fill an encyclopedia just get on with it. I won't hold my breath in the meantime but I do like surprises.

My thoughts exactly,but I for one would like to see the Pier rebuilt to look how it was in the Victorian/Edwardian era.

Whilst I say I am happy this is happening, this is very bittersweet for me. I had the proposal idea, and sent it to the council for a pavilion for a wedding venue as well, and the council told me that they could not do this, as it is public property, and were unable to section any of the pier for private use such as wedding venue etc. I would like to know, why I got rejected, yet someone else did not? My fiancee is a weddig planner by trade and I wanted to give her a venue where welcome drinks would be served before being boarded on their own private train. I would like answers, but I don't think i'll get them!!!

Robb wrote:
Whilst I say I am happy this is happening, this is very bittersweet for me. I had the proposal idea, and sent it to the council for a pavilion for a wedding venue as well, and the council told me that they could not do this, as it is public property, and were unable to section any of the pier for private use such as wedding venue etc. I would like to know, why I got rejected, yet someone else did not? My fiancee is a weddig planner by trade and I wanted to give her a venue where welcome drinks would be served before being boarded on their own private train. I would like answers, but I don't think i'll get them!!!

Do you have any Tory councillors among your friends? If the answer is 'no', there's your answer.

Robb wrote:
Whilst I say I am happy this is happening, this is very bittersweet for me. I had the proposal idea, and sent it to the council for a pavilion for a wedding venue as well, and the council told me that they could not do this, as it is public property, and were unable to section any of the pier for private use such as wedding venue etc. I would like to know, why I got rejected, yet someone else did not? My fiancee is a weddig planner by trade and I wanted to give her a venue where welcome drinks would be served before being boarded on their own private train. I would like answers, but I don't think i'll get them!!!

Thats so tacky......

amazingly though, tack sells, look at Jordan!!? And the like! No Tory friends no!! Ha Ha

Robb wrote:
amazingly though, tack sells, look at Jordan!!? And the like! No Tory friends no!! Ha Ha

Thats the trouble, we need to get the tack out of southend to make it more up-market...

anon anon wrote:

Robb wrote: amazingly though, tack sells, look at Jordan!!? And the like! No Tory friends no!! Ha Ha

Thats the trouble, we need to get the tack out of southend to make it more up-market...

Agreed, and I'm not certain that a mention of Jordan adds much to the discussion. Original post regarding suggestion about wedding pavilion, private train, etc, etc, was a bit unbelievable, ( cancel that, substitute ridiculous ), and was bound to turn out to be one of the usual politically slanted comments that we have come to expect. I think that many of us who judge each proposal on it's merits, ignoring whichever political party has made the suggestion, draw some comfort from the fact that these type of posts are generally treated with disdain by the thinking majority.

Well a restaurant, bar and wedding venue, to you may be tack, to others is not.

It is a question of taste isn't it?

You can't please the masses all the time.

Not a ridiculous idea really, you can command £5,000 for a wedding venue, with nothing else included, just the hire of the venue?

If I took that, my offer was to give 70% back to the council for funding the pier, and other developments.

We don't want to get rid of all so called "tack", cos we would get rid of a "tacky" pier, all the shops in the golden mile sell "tack".

As I say, it was my idea, and look the idea has come to fruition, all I ask, is how can it come to fruition when I was told that you cannot section the pier off for private use?

Anon Anon, you seem to have missed my point, tack or otherwise, why say one thing to one and say another thing to another?

The mention of "Jordan" was also in jest, you people really need to lighten up sometimes. This is a have your say, not a berate anyone who poses a question.

One final thing, to point out, this is Southend, not Monaco. It will never be amazing, as there is too much riff raff, so rather than complain, learn to adapt.

anon anon wrote:

Robb wrote: amazingly though, tack sells, look at Jordan!!? And the like! No Tory friends no!! Ha Ha

Thats the trouble, we need to get the tack out of southend to make it more up-market...

No, we need LOADS OF TACK. Town has plenty already on offer. Cliff Slipped Gardens, High Street with Pound Shoppers, Clubbers, Boozers, Druggies, Vandals, Graffiti Artists, Amusement Arcaders, Esplanade House Appreciation Society Members, Victoria Avenue Worshippers, Tree Huggers. Concrete Huggers, Road Building Maniacs, Renaissance Southenders and so on.
Sarfend is Sarfend wonderfully so down-market. A real gem amongst the greatest TACK TOWNS and can rival Margate! Lets keep what we're good at!

anon anon wrote:

Robb wrote: amazingly though, tack sells, look at Jordan!!? And the like! No Tory friends no!! Ha Ha

Thats the trouble, we need to get the tack out of southend to make it more up-market...

No, we need LOADS OF TACK. Town has plenty already on offer. Cliff Slipped Gardens, High Street with Pound Shoppers, Clubbers, Boozers, Druggies, Vandals, Graffiti Artists, Amusement Arcaders, Esplanade House Appreciation Society Members, Victoria Avenue Worshippers, Tree Huggers. Concrete Huggers, Road Building Maniacs, Renaissance Southenders and so on.
Sarfend is Sarfend wonderfully so down-market. A real gem amongst the greatest TACK TOWNS and can rival Margate! Lets keep what we're good at!

V is stupid! Its good news that something is going to be constrcuted on the crap hole of a pier! Im not sold on the Road improvement at Cuckoo though!

anon anon wrote:

evilc wrote: Yet again well done Southend Council regardless who pays. Another example of doing what they were elected to do improve the crumbling Victorian infrastructure and improve amenities. To Date: Road improvements Seafront improvements Cycling pathways Southend Airport New Toilet facilities Chalkwell Excellent new children's playground equipment. PLANTING TREES (up yours V) All will help generate wealth that will be needed to pay benefits to all the moaners, protesters and asylum seekers.

could not agree more. well done the council........

Agreed , just thought i'd mention that 30 new trees have just been planted at Shoebury East Beach. ( source, todays local paper ).
Scores :-
Trees cut down in the last few years - a very few dozen
Trees planted in the last few years -
hundreds, ( possibly a thousand or two)

Game , set and match, I believe.

Please share with us your source for your figure of 'possibly thousands' of trees planted in the borough recently.

You might also explain to us how selling Gunners Park to developers for an industrial estate, destroying Barge Pier Road's half mile long tree-lined avenue, clearcutting Gunners Parks woodland areas, and replacing Gunners Park with a large drainage pond and a swamp, is beneficial to anyone?

Good news, how about being able to get decent fish and chips, a glass of wine or a beer and an ice cream, that would be a good start. Perhaps a trad carousel would be good for the kids too, some more ships visiting, maybe even speedboat rides, didn't we have them years ago? There's loads the council could put there to keep us all happy but no I don't want that roller coaster monster thing.

All this good news lol coming out of the council only makes me think theres an election due... i wonder how much John Lambs milking off this one now then .more grandstanding photos for his collection.

soufend girl! wrote:
Good news, how about being able to get decent fish and chips, a glass of wine or a beer and an ice cream, that would be a good start. Perhaps a trad carousel would be good for the kids too, some more ships visiting, maybe even speedboat rides, didn't we have them years ago? There's loads the council could put there to keep us all happy but no I don't want that roller coaster monster thing.

could have had most of that done years ago, 'marina ' springs to mind !!! but no, would have spoilt the town, the idiots said...

'V' wrote:
Please share with us your source for your figure of 'possibly thousands' of trees planted in the borough recently. You might also explain to us how selling Gunners Park to developers for an industrial estate, destroying Barge Pier Road's half mile long tree-lined avenue, clearcutting Gunners Parks woodland areas, and replacing Gunners Park with a large drainage pond and a swamp, is beneficial to anyone?

Comment reprinted below from an, ( admittedly ), political figure in a post on another Echo thread.
Might be rubbish, but can you prove it ?. Has to be said, whilst driving, ( sorry about that but health prevents the use of a bike ), around the borough, the general impression I get, ( as I suspect , do the majority ), of the borough is one, ( in most cases ), of attractive parks and open spaces, well planted dual carriageway dividing verges, roundabouts, flower beds, etc, etc, etc.
Garrison Park does not look that great, but I suspect it is still a case of waiting to see the eventual outcome.It would be nice to achieve everything immediately but sometimes we have to be patient, ( sometimes for years ).

PS, did not actually say "thousands of trees recently". Those are your words, not mine. Actual comment was somewhat different.

Previous Post said :-

"But what nobody is talking about is that more than 1,000 new trees have been planted in Southend over the past year, with almost 200 scheduled to be planted in the coming months.

The Conservatives introduced a strict policy that for every tree that had to be removed, two would be planted. At Victoria Square those 22 trees will be replaced by 44.

At Cuckoo Corner, nine new trees have already been planted and are growing well. A minimum of 32 more will go into the Cuckoo Corner/Priory Crescent landscaping.

That’s 41 trees for 16 removed."

Finally, I suspect that the few who spend their lives in protest over a very few trees would be better employed in organising fund-raising activities to purchase and plant even more additional new trees, ( details on council website, cost approx £60-£80 per tree.)

Please spare me the expected and rather obvious and cheap reply of, " What, just so they can cut them down ? "

openspace wrote:

'V' wrote: Please share with us your source for your figure of 'possibly thousands' of trees planted in the borough recently. You might also explain to us how selling Gunners Park to developers for an industrial estate, destroying Barge Pier Road's half mile long tree-lined avenue, clearcutting Gunners Parks woodland areas, and replacing Gunners Park with a large drainage pond and a swamp, is beneficial to anyone?

Comment reprinted below from an, ( admittedly ), political figure in a post on another Echo thread. Might be rubbish, but can you prove it ?. Has to be said, whilst driving, ( sorry about that but health prevents the use of a bike ), around the borough, the general impression I get, ( as I suspect , do the majority ), of the borough is one, ( in most cases ), of attractive parks and open spaces, well planted dual carriageway dividing verges, roundabouts, flower beds, etc, etc, etc. Garrison Park does not look that great, but I suspect it is still a case of waiting to see the eventual outcome.It would be nice to achieve everything immediately but sometimes we have to be patient, ( sometimes for years ). PS, did not actually say "thousands of trees recently". Those are your words, not mine. Actual comment was somewhat different. Previous Post said :- "But what nobody is talking about is that more than 1,000 new trees have been planted in Southend over the past year, with almost 200 scheduled to be planted in the coming months. The Conservatives introduced a strict policy that for every tree that had to be removed, two would be planted. At Victoria Square those 22 trees will be replaced by 44. At Cuckoo Corner, nine new trees have already been planted and are growing well. A minimum of 32 more will go into the Cuckoo Corner/Priory Crescent landscaping. That’s 41 trees for 16 removed." Finally, I suspect that the few who spend their lives in protest over a very few trees would be better employed in organising fund-raising activities to purchase and plant even more additional new trees, ( details on council website, cost approx £60-£80 per tree.) Please spare me the expected and rather obvious and cheap reply of, " What, just so they can cut them down ? "

Sorry, slip of the pen above, should have said "Gunners Park", ( senior moment !!!).
Had to go to Shoebury today so diverted slightly to look at East Beach improvements, quite impressive, looks good. Decided to try a sample new(ish) tree count en-route. Went via Thorpe Bay back via Royal Artillery Way, also checked out Gunners Park , ( via newly tree-lined New Barge Pier Road ). This does indeed look very much like a "work in progress area so will reserve judgement for a year or three !!. Gave up tree counting as a bad job, simply too many new trees. That being the case, have no problem at all with the claimed council tree planting figures quoted above !!!!.
(1000 or more in recent year or two )