The devastation that now exists on Brooklands estate, in Jaywick, can be very firmly placed at the door of Essex County Council, the Urban District Council that was, and now Tendring Council.

The lack of investment in Brooklands and other parts of Jaywick is legendary.

Since 1971 when the Urban District Council tried to compulsory-purchase Brooklands estate and failed miserably, there has been a campaign of systematic neglect.

That neglect has been very successful in driving the homeowner/occupiers and holiday home owners away.

The lack of investment in hundreds of council tax payers has, I believe, been shameful.

It is the duty of all authorities to accept responsibilities for all council tax payers and all their constituents, even those of Brooklands and Grasslands.

I am not deprived in my living conditions as I had my home extended and refurbished, with planning permission, on one single plot back in 2004.

What I am deprived of is a road, footways that were on the agenda back in 1996, when £1million pounds was granted from the Rural Challenge development scheme.

I would consider the actions of all authorities to be dishonest in an area that the authorities have robbed of investment for at least 40 years. Taking land and monies from the Jaywick Sands Freeholders Association for the proposed project of relaying roads and footways, and not delivering, could be construed as theft.

I believe Brooklands to be one of the safest pieces of land on this coastline. So, reinstate planning with special measures and keep bungalows wooden. They are the fabric and heritage of this unique place.

Please search your conscience, stop thinking of pounds, shillings and pence, and start thinking of fairness, decency and preservation instead of destruction.

The authorities have suffered from tunnel vision. Let’s have some forward thinking to save Brooklands and the whole of Jaywick, not in the next five, ten or 15 years, but in the next two years. If this project is not started soon there will be very little left to regenerate, or is that the intention of the authorities?

Janet Sharpe
Swift Avenue
Jaywick