3.5 Westcliff

Westcliff neighbourhood lies between Leigh to the west and Southend Town Centre and Central Seafront to the east (Map 37, Figure 23). It stretches from the coast to the south to the Prittle Brook to the north and is bisected by the London Road (A13). The London Road marks a change in street pattern and defines the distinctive Westborough residential area in the northern part of the neighbourhood, a tightly knit grid pattern of terraced Victorian and Edwardian housing. The southern part of the neighbourhood contains a mixture of mainly Victorian and Edwardian residential streets with some larger properties particularly along the seafront route, including high rise flats.

Westcliff is the most densely developed neighbourhood in the Borough, having developed largely during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Many properties have in the past been sub-divided into flats and average density in the area is around 46 homes per hectare. In places this has resulted in a lack of amenity space, including space for adequate and convenient waste storage.

The commercial and retail areas of the neighbourhood are centred along the A13 London Road and the adjacent district centre of Hamlet Court Road with its north-south axis. To the south of this commercial area is Westcliff Railway station, providing connections to Southend and London. Prittlewell Railway Station lies to the east of the neighbourhood and is in reasonable walking distance for many residents. The area benefits from regular bus services along the A13 London Road and Prittlewell Chase to the north, providing services to Southend Hospital, Southend, Eastwood, Leigh and Shoeburyness. However, bus services to some parts of the Borough are infrequent and often involve changes.

Key issues in the area include development pressure to convert family housing to flats, and associated impacts on residential amenity including on street parking pressure, and high-rise development along the seafront, the scale and massing of which can have an impact on the character of the area.

Westcliff has the second lowest car ownership in the Borough, although there is still demand for on-street car parking spaces given the high number of conversions from houses to flats or houses in multiple occupation, and lack of off-street parking in many of the Victorian and Edwardian properties.

Map 37: Westcliff Characteristics

Figure 23: Westcliff Characteristics

No. Homes	10,602	Land Area (ha)	232
Density	45.7 dph	Car Ownership	0.96

Where we want to be

Westcliff will continue to be a vibrant and accessible neighbourhood, with every day goods and services within easy reach for residents. Hamlet Court Road District Centre remains the focus for everyday activity, complemented by businesses along the A13 London Road, and its community and cultural assets will be strengthened.  A draft set of priorities for Westcliff are set out below to aid feedback:

• Focus day to day shops and services in Hamlet Court Road district centre including opportunities for co-working combined with commercial premises.
• Opportunities for new homes focussed along London Road public transport corridor and near train stations.
• Identify opportunities for new and improved green spaces and increased tree cover throughout the area, particularly around Hamlet Court Road/London Road.
• Conserve and enhance designated heritage assets.
• Strengthen local walking and cycling networks, including links to railway stations and centres, with improved wayfinding and public art, and seek opportunities to expand the Borough’s Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure network.
• Carefully manage environmental assets and flood risk, including the foreshore and Prittle Brook.

The following profile seeks to build up a picture of the ‘completeness’ of Westcliff neighbourhood. Completeness is based on mapping the walking catchments around different day to day facilities (17 different facilities in total). The catchment areas vary by facility and reflect comfortable walking distances for the average, able-bodied person. The catchments are based on actual walking routes rather than ‘as the crow flies’ distances.

A high completeness score means a place has lots of facilities the community needs within an easy walking distance. This approach recognises the important links to health and social well-being, community cohesion and inclusion.

The completeness score for Westcliff, by infrastructure type, is summarised in the rainbow image below. For example 84% of the neighbourhood lies within easy walking distance to a health facility, 69% of the neighbourhood is within easy walking distance of sports and leisure facilities, while 18% is within an easy walk of green space.

Westcliff ‘Aggregated Completeness Score’ = 70

Map – as an example a high completeness score would be 14 –17 different facilities being within a reasonable walking distance from home. Conversely a low score would be less than 4 facilities within walking distance.

A number of potential land use proposals are identified for future housing, employment and open space. For each site, the location, proposed use and indicative amount of development (if applicable) is provided.

3.5.4.1 New Homes

Potential site proposals for residential development can be viewed in Map 38. Table 38 sets outs relevant information including, context and surrounding uses, proposed use, estimated number of new dwellings and what ‘component of growth’ the site contributes to in reference to Section 2: Meeting Our Housing Needs (Table 2). The sites have been promoted to us by landowners/ agents and are included here for comment. Table 38 also notes the amount of new homes that are likely to come forward over the lifetime of the plan through sites already with planning permission and windfall development.

Map 38: Potential Residential Sites – Westcliff (excluding those with planning permission)

For more information on each site an assessment can be viewed by clicking on the link reference in Table 38 below or via: Appendix 4: Site Proformas | Southend Local Plan

Table 38: Potential Residential Sites - Westcliff

Individual Potential Sites listed below

Good quality urban design will be essential in new housing development if the character of the neighbourhood is to be enhanced.

Map 39 shows the Urban Forms of Westcliff neighbourhood. This has been informed by the Southend Borough Wide Character Study and is intended to provide a broad overview of the types and densities of development across the neighbourhood; this can range from low density, areas of detached housing, to high rise flats.

To assist with the preparation of development management and design policies, which will impact the scale, type and density of new homes, we are interested in your views on broadly what types of development you think should come forward in the neighbourhood. It may be that there are different parts of the neighbourhood that you think could accommodate different types of development.

Figure 24 provides a range of development typologies at different densities, for both houses and flats. We’d like to know whether there is a particular

typology that you’d like to see come forward in Westcliff and within the different Urban Forms as shown in Map 39. For instance you may believe the

‘Linear Centre’ of the London Road within Map 39 should accommodate higher density development, such as flats typology F2 and F3, within Figure 24.

Figure 24 – Development Typologies

Map 39: Urban Form of Westcliff

The retention and provision of employment sites is necessary to enable balanced job and housing growth. Westcliff neighbourhood has no designated employment areas. Key employers in the area are Southend Hospital, local schools and the two theatres, as well as the many small businesses within Hamlet Court Road and along London Road. Proximity to Westcliff and Prittlewell stations also provides opportunity for residents travel out of the Borough for work.

There are amendments proposed to the Westcliff (Hamlet Court Road/London Road) District Centre (Map 40) due to the reduction of active frontages in the south of the centre that reduce its ability to function as an effective commercial, business and service sector. The southern section has a high proportion of units in residential use, introducing a dispersed distribution of the retail provision. To ensure a healthy commercial centre which delivers the required improvements and which functions accordingly it might be necessary to consider the extent of the centre. Releasing this part of the centre by allowing for alternative uses, while the rest of the centre can be the focus for commercial uses, will consolidate and strengthen the whole centre.

As of August 2021, the Government is also introducing expanded permitted development rights to enable Commercial Uses to be converted to residential without planning permission. Due to this there are limitations on safeguarding ground floor commercial uses within key centres from changing to residential. However, under Article 4 of the General Permitted Development Order a local planning authority can apply to the Secretary of State to withdraw specified permitted development rights across a defined area. The use of Article 4 directions should not be expansive and therefore if we were to use them to restrict ground floor commercial uses from changing to residential, we must focus them to the most important frontages. In reference to Table 39 and Map 40 we are interested in your views on which centres we should investigate for using Article 4 Directions in order to restrict ground floor commercial frontages from being developed to residential under permitted development.

Table 39: Westcliff Commercial Centres

Map 40: Westcliff Commercial Centres

National planning policy allows for Local Plans to identify and protect existing green space so it is not built on unless an assessment demonstrates the open space, buildings or land are surplus to requirements; any open space lost would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity, quality and access; or the benefits of new sports and recreation facilities clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use as open space. In this respect the New Local Plan seeks to protect the green spaces as set out in Table 40 and Map 41.

Existing Green Space

The neighbourhood itself has very little public green space. There is a playground at Fairfax Drive and allotments at Springfield Drive. Just outside the neighbourhood, Milton Gardens and Gainsborough Park and playground, although relatively small, are also well used by residents. There are large public parks at Priory Park, Chalkwell Park and Esplanade Gardens, to the east, west and south of the neighbourhood area, which also offer access to green space for residents. However the high-density nature of the neighbourhood and more urbanised character of the streets mean that it is less leafy in character than most of the other neighbourhoods. This is illustrated by the lack of tree cover, which at 8.5% of the neighbourhood is one of the lowest in the Borough. The Council’s Tree Policy sets a target to extend the overall tree canopy cover in the Borough from 12% to 15% by 2050. Tree cover should be increased whenever opportunities arise.

Residents in the western and eastern edges of Westcliff are within the walking catchment of Chalkwell Park and Priory Park, offering a range of facilities

including cafes, cricket and bowling, football pitches and other sports facilities, and children’s playgrounds. The south east corner of the neighbourhood is within walking distance of Milton Gardens and Esplanade Gardens. Nevertheless, there remains an area in the centre of Westcliff around West Road and the top of Hamlet Court Road that lies outside a comfortable walking distance of any open space facility. This area, which has one of the highest population densities in the Borough and is near to several primary schools is therefore a priority location for new local play space or pocket parks.

Local Green Space

National planning policy allows local authorities to designate land as Local Green Space through their local plans, so that communities can identify and protect green areas of particular importance to them, for example because of its historic significance, recreational value, tranquillity, beauty or richness of its wildlife. Policies for managing Local Green Space are consistent with those for Green Belts. No Local Green Space sites are proposed in Westcliff. The outcome of this consultation will be particularly important in demonstrating whether any green spaces should have this designation.

Proposed New Green Space Sites (Table 40a)

It is proposed to designate a site at the junction of London Road and Crowstone Avenue which is already landscaped and provided with seating and bins, as a Pocket Park.

Landscaped areas at The Leas are proposed to be protected as Linear Green Space as they are not currently protected. For the same reason Fairfax playground is also proposed to be protected.

The Victory Path from the Ridgeway to Crowstone Road and the Prittle Brook are proposed to be designated as Green Corridors, where biodiversity will be protected and enhanced and the route promoted for walking and cycling.

An area of search has also been identified at Hamlet Court Rd/London Road, where new provision for pocket parks or local play space should be prioritised as part of any redevelopment proposals.

Map 41: Existing Green Space in Westcliff and Proposed New Green Space

Table 40: Westcliff – Protected Green Space

Table 40a: Westcliff – Proposed New Green Space Designations

Individual sites listed below with question

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