There have already been two ‘consultations’ on plans for the future of Basildon town centre.

Firstly, there was this from Basildon Council: Basildon town centre regeneration.

Then one of the developers involved in the ‘regeneration’ of the town centre had a ‘consultation’ about a scheme they want to build to the north of Market Square: Welcome to our consultation website on Orwell Real Estate’s emerging plans for a sustainable, high-quality development on the land north of Market Square, at the gateway to Basildon Town Centre.

The phases of engagement with the public for these two ‘consultations’ has now expired and the findings are being ‘considered’. Further ‘engagement’ with the public cannot be ruled out.

Now another developer wants to get in on the act with a consultation about a scheme they have in mind for the ‘Eastgate Quarter’ – this is from the architects, Leslie Jones: Basildon: Your Town, Your Future.

Do these f***ers think the residents of Basildon have nothing else to do with their days other than to sit around responding to bullshit ‘consultations’? Most people are busy trying to get by in difficult times so it’s only going to be a small, self selecting audience that will have the time to wade through yet another load of bullshit, hype and waffle, and then try as best they can to respond to it.

The Eastgate Quarter ‘consultation’ from Leslie Jones certainly ticks all of the bullshit boxes in terms of the wording used, the use of restful pastel colour across the website and illustrations that show a lot of trees and greenery. That still doesn’t hide the fact that they want to ram the Eastgate area with as many medium and high rise apartments as they can get away with. Here’s a simple rule of thumb – the more bullshit and greenery there is in a development consultation, the more aware you need to be to the actual intentions.

You could be forgiven for thinking that piling on one bullshit ‘consultation’ after another is a tactic to wear the time pressed residents of Basildon down until only a few people are left bothering to respond to all of this bullshit. Which is why, despite the fact that we think ‘consultations’ are nothing more than box ticking exercises to make developers look good, we think that people do need to respond to tell Leslie Jones and Basildon Council that they do not want Eastgate rammed with high rises. Diversity of tactics and all that…