Well........im back! I have been to the meeting and now i am going to try to report back what i learned today. We were shown slides of the proposed development, the area for housing is very vast, and by the way, its not affordable housing, but luxury executive housing! 750 of them! For the whole estate there will be only 2 access roads, one in Dry Street (which is to lose the grass verge and b e widened) near the Longwood gates and the other out onto the hospital roundabout!!!!! Apparently they plan to make the roundabout smaller so traffic flows better!!!!! In reality its not the roundabout thats the problem, its the narrowing of the road under the railway arch at the bottom of the hill before the next roundabout at BP Garage!!!!! This traffic situation is surely a worry in itself? They are also building a primary school! With 750 4 bedroomed houses built, that school will instantly be full! But no additional secondary school! The Government (HCA) want to sell the land and give the proceeds to the Council in order to finance a new college in the Town Centre, presumably to save the poor students having to walk 5 mins from the train/bus station to the old one. To do this they will build houses and sell them and make the relevant funds needed! As far as Longwood goes, this is described on the plans as "a small riding school on the north west of the plan occupying a warehouse type construction and some stables"! We had to literally explain what an Equestrian Centre was! Now.......the planning permission becomes live next friday 23rd November, from this date anyone interested in opposing the plans must write individually to the Council expressing their grievances. Bear in mind that the HCA believe that this establishment is not used by anyone living outside of a 3km radius of Longwood!!! (where do they get this useless information from)? I urge everyone that has the tiniest bit of interest in saving this establishment to get writing, please put your address at the top of the page so that they can see that not everyone lives in Basildon. You can either send them in individually, but i will personally be going to the council offices on a specified day with a box full of letters and will demand a receipt for them, so if you prefer you can hand them in at longwood . A petition has been mentioned and i believe there is one on line, however i personally think that a petition will be judged by how many pages it covers and not read properly but its worth a try. All who attended the meeting will be receiving e mails from the councillors with more information as it becomes available and i will endeavour to keep you all updated. Many thanks for your support