James Duddridge, Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East, speaks about the tower blocks in Southend.
James said
“Whilst knocking down the tower blocks and starting again may be an attractive solution to some, there just isn’t the land to accommodate the same number of people on the same site. I first visited the tower blocks in 2004 with David Norman and we discussed the issues then both in terms of the symptoms and the causes. David has worked for many years trying to seek solutions and unfortunately, although there have been improvements along the way, we are just not a satisfactory position yet. More recently local activist Del Thomas has been working to improve the lives of those law abiding residents and bring justice to those that are not. I think we all need to work on this issue, it is not a party political issue. One solution will not solve the whole problem.
The storehouse, which is located within the Victoria ward, provides an excellent service to the local community and indeed residents from across the borough. Local community groups and activists continue to seek solution to these problems. I, along with members of the community, worked hard to keep the local post office open when it faced closure in 2008. The Post Office is an integral part of the community and to close the service could have isolated the residents of the tower blokes further. We should be striving for community engagement and integration. Segregation will only perpetuate the problem and cause further social decline for these residents.
During my last visit I was accompanied with Sgt Paul Ahmed and members of the SMAART team, Southend Multi-Agency Anti-social behaviour Response Team, and again, we discussed the issues and problems. We also spoke about what actions have been taken to address these.
For too long the tower blocks have been used to house some of the most difficult social tenants in the area. We need to see mixed tenants within these housing blocks and possibly look to house some private tenants. I think everyone is agreed that the issues and problems that plague the tower blocks must continue to seek solution. I am not a great fan of CCTV but in this case would look at any solution”
ENDS