South Essex 2050: Testing & enhancing the vision for the future | Current Consultations

Shape the future of the South Essex region

While minds are undoubtedly focussed on responding to the current Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, it is important that we come out of this period of unprecedented change with a clear view of what needs to be done to support recovery, and promote a prosperous and inclusive future for South Essex.

Over the past few years, the South Essex councils have sought to understand your views about what it’s like to live in your local area and what you hope to achieve in the future. These consultations are vital in shaping local services, but we want to start a different kind of conversation too:  about the long-term future for the South Essex region in 2050. 

The towns, villages, rural and coastal areas of South Essex – from Purfleet to Foulness; Blackmore to Canvey Island – are each distinct and special in their own way. But these places are interconnected too.  Our daily lives are intertwined with neighbouring places. Our futures interwoven together.

Together we make up a region spanning of more than 800,000 people, with 33,000 businesses and 350,000 workers powering an economy in excess of £12bn. Together our economy matches that of Oxfordshire’s or the Tees Valley; just under one-third of the UK population are within one hours drive away. Together we are significant on a national and international scale. While individually our towns and villages, rural and coastal areas will continue to thrive, there is much more we can achieve together. There are challenges that we cannot individually address; ambitions that we cannot realise alone.

We want to hear your views on South Essex as a place to live, to work, to visit, to run a business. We want to explore how South Essex might change over the next 30 years. What South Essex could achieve if we work together.

That’s why we’ve launched the YourSaySE2050 website. Over the next three months we will be posing a number of important questions and using a variety of tools to capture your thoughts. We are calling on everyone – from residents to businesses, visitors to voluntary sector organisations – to join the conversation.

We want to hear from all corners of South Essex; our towns, villages, rural and coastal areas. We want to hear different perspectives: young and old, from those who have just moved to the region to people that have lived here all their lives.

We encourage you to challenge our thinking. To tell us what’s important to you. To share your hopes for the future of South Essex. To help us focus our efforts and direct investment towards the things that matter most.

Join the conversation today. Visit www.YourSaySE2050.co.uk

“We are at the start of something potentially big for south Essex. People and businesses do not live and grow by local authority boundaries and by forming this association we are able to deliver a better quality of life for our residents, exciting futures for their children and an environment in which local government and businesses can work together to create infrastructure, communities and businesses which will benefit us all for generations yet to come. We want to work with businesses and ensure that residents are at the heart of everything we do. Together we can begin to build a fantastic future in South Essex.” Cllr Rob Gledhill, Chair of Association of South Essex Local Authorities (ASELA)