The Havens Hospice story is one of planning permission, green belt law and simple humanity interspersed with vindictive rumour, misinformation and factual information.

Southend’s residents have had more than enough time to ponder the evidence, and now it’s crunch time when the council’s planners have to decide on the application to build a hospice just below Belton Way, Leigh.

After all, Southend is expanding, the NHS has no dedicated facility for terminally ill people, apart from the clinical climate of a ward of the town’s only hospital.

Sadly there are too many stories of lack of care for the terminally ill, not because nurses are inept and uncaring, but because there is no proper training, finance and staff to provide for those who deserve to pass away with dignity.

Havens wants to build a hospice on the thin end of the scrubby wedge of land most of us probably didn’t know existed until we read about it in the Echo.

However, the greenies were on the case and insisted the habitat of a few newts and moths was more important than the terminally ill.

There is this horrible elitism in Leigh, with its school catchment areas and inflated house prices, sniffy little shops selling overpriced gifts, fabrics and antiques.

A hospice versus somewhere for a dog to defecate or a rambler wishing to have the right to ramble is a question of life over death. You decide.

How valuable to you is that patch of scrubland compared with a bed with a view in an end-of-life scenario?

Send your opinion to the decision-makers. They will need to know it to decide the outcome.

I see a hunk of land that is a one-off deal, with guarantees that no further development towards Hadleigh Castle will be allowed.

My view has shifted towards acceptance of the Havens site for the care of our terminally ill on land that is of no consequence.

I believe we need this hospice. Without it, what is the alternative?

Trevor Murdin
Flemming Crescent
Leigh