Voicing his unhappiness that, once again, the meadows of Dry Street are under the threat of redevelopment, Bob Langdon, (letters September 8) asks what happened to the vision of the New Town planners?
He cites the Masterplan of the now defunct development corporation as proof of the long term inspiring perception of the initial concept of 1946 as opposed to the short-term blinkered attitude of the present day.
Does he not realise that the designation of an area of 18 square miles as a “town” designed to accommodate a population of only 50,000 inhabitants in the 1940s, very quickly amended to 106,000 was simply a public relations exercise.
It was designed to forestall the initial objections of the day to the whole idea that such a thing as a vibrant entity as a town could ever be “imposed”
from above by people who knew better of what was wanted than those already in residence.
John Bathurst
Mellow Purgess Close
Basildon
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