IN the “50 years ago” feature in Life in our community in the Gazette (October 20), there was apparently “great interest in the campaign to keep the Naze as an open space”.
Godfrey Evans, a former test cricketer was refused planning permission for his £2 million development plan for the Naze.
Fifty years on, we can see the result of the decision: the “open space” is well on its way to Belgium. The farmer who sold the Naze to the local council should have been made permanent portfolio holder for planning on the local council, employing the treasurer to stand on the Naze cliffs throwing pound notes into the sea.
Obviously, the front page of the same edition of the Frinton and Walton Gazette, featuring the closing of Walton police station, was further evidence in the continuing decline of Walton-on-the-Naze.
The current plans to regenerate the town could be best described as “deja vu”. The Mere, formerly the boating lake or mire, needs to be resolved whilst accepting local apprehension.
As with all areas with water frontage, advantage should be taken of it, or in 50 years’ time, Walton-on-the-Naze may be on its way to Belgium.
Mr L J Mayhew
Woodberry Way
Walton
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