30 October 2023 Milton Society has applied to Southend City Council for a review of their 2021 decision not to designate the so called ‘wider area’ of Hamlet Court as a conservation area. The area includes lower Hamlet Court Road, Ditton Court, Preston and Cossington Roads. This follows the 92.5% survey support from the public for wider designation. New evidence of the importance of local Edwardian architecture has resulted from a survey of local turrets which, in Southend, all centre on Hamlet Court Road and the neighbouring Leas area. And numerous mistakes and falsehoods have ...

The results of the public survey carried out this spring have now been collated and are published here: HAMLET COURT ROAD PUBLIC SURVEY – RESULTS The unattributed results are fairly lengthy but can can be understood quite quickly. A summary is included at the beginning. The results include all of the unattributed public comments which make interesting reading. These results will be issued to the High Street Task Force and Southend City Council to assist in the evidence base for future regeneration. Thank you to all who gave their views and especially to those who indicated they would ...

Our Spring 2023 Newsletter has just been published and here you can read all about our recent work and activites. You can find it here: Spring2023Newsletter...

A new local Society was created at the recent AGMs of Hamlet Court Conservation Forum and Milton Conservation Society. It is to be called Milton Society and in due course this website will be updated to reflect the new group and describe our activities. Essentially the main work will continue in and around the local conservation areas of Milton, Shorefields and Hamlet Court but we will also be looking to assist the heritage of the local Milton area. More to follow soon…...

HCCF is to consider and vote on a merger with Milton Conservation Society at its AGM on 26th October 2022 at 7.30pm at the YMCA Hub in St John’s Road, Westcliff. This exciting possibility has been considered throughout the summer and can bring significant advantages for both groups, most notably describing a far wider working area of support for local heritage in the Milton Westcliff area. Information can be shared and best practice encouraged in caring for our wider built environment. It would also bring other advantages including the opportunity for the membership to grow and the ...

A new survey of business opinion has been launched throughout Hamlet Court Road by Hamlet Court Business Partnership (HCBP) with a leaflet drop and online survey. This is open to all businesses in the road with the opportunity to give views on a whole range of local issues. You can take the survey here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MN2BBQK or simply scan the QR code....

Thanks to all those who supported our recent ‘Hamlet Court Calling’ event. With the help of The Haven Community Hub and 12 local traders we displayed around 60 Edwardian photographs in Hamlet Court Road. This created a great deal on interest in the history of our local area with a good deal of wonderful feedback reaching us. Many of you took advantage of the opportunity to purchase a photograph or two and we have been asked about the future availability of smaller copies which are now considering. More news on this will follow. We also had a very interesting talk at the Hub by ...

March 2021 The possible conservation area designation of either the north end of Hamlet Court Road (HCR), south of London Road, or of a wider area including all of HCR, Preston, Ditton Court, Cossington and part of Canewdon Road is currently out to public consultation. If you live locally you may have received a letter recently from an anonymous ‘resident’ suggesting that conservation designation ‘can mean many restrictions’. This is misleading and here we’ll try to explain each of the claims. Please note planning rules can be complicated and will depend upon the exact planning rules in place ...

This message put to our Borough Councillors today – 14/2/21 The Economic Case for Conservation Area Designation to all of commercial Hamlet Court Road When I asked a question at Full Council in December about the potential for heritage led economic regeneration the Portfolio Holder correctly pointed to the law and the consideration that designation should only be in terms of architectural or historical special interest. Of course we understand this. But the economic question is huge and will be crucial to existing and future traders in the road and wider area, the residents locally and ...

This important consultation has been available to the public for some weeks  – see here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/907647/MHCLG-Planning-Consultation.pdf Although it says little about historic building and places with further details to follow, we have made our consultation contribution here. We decided to keep our response short to make just two main points about how we think planning should adapt to better care for the widespread historic places that affect most peoples lives and deal with frequently seen failings. ...