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. ...

The area for conservation designation in Westcliff has now been proposed by the Leigh Councillor heading this up with officers has the top end of Hamlet Court Road only. In part this is great news and will be wonderful for Westcliff to see our rich heritage contribute to economic regeneration, hopefully with access to new funding streams. But we have been making the case for 3 years for the whole of HCR and the local residential roads to be protected and this was what 91.5% of the public said they wanted in our public survey. This area is at least equal if not greater historically and ...

Our information leaflet will be dropping through all the local doors in August (having been delayed in the spring by the Coronavirus crisis). All residents and businesses will have the opportunity to have their say in the conservation protection of the area and its contribution to local heritage led regeneration by going to our online survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/K2TM3HT You may have already seen and completed the survey – thank you for helping your local neighbourhood But if not now is your opportunity via the link above....

Dear Councillor, The possible conservation area designation of the Hamlet Court area is before you at Place Scrutiny tomorrow evening. We just wanted to drop you a quick line to express the considerable community support for designation – our group has been working on this for the last 3 years. We want designation to help protect the wonderful history and architecture but, importantly, to help the economic regeneration of the area. This can happen as many place and retail experts in the UK now recognise and this has led to the High Street Heritage Action Zone programme, part of the ...