I AM no architect or town planner, but how can you fit more than 500 homes into Alexander House in Southend?

Rabbit hutch homes maybe?

It’s a big old building but you’d have to be some architect to get in excess of 500 flats or bedsits in there.

And what about the cars? Where will they all be parked?

Presumably there will be an additional doctor at Queensway surgery to cope with up to 1,000 people more in central Southend?

Barmy!

P PRYDE Westcliff

High-rise block will need more parking IT was interesting to read the recent article on the proposed development into flats of the empty HMRC building at the end of Victoria Avenue, Southend.

Any plan to provide fewer than one parking space per flat should be questioned, as this is not correct.

I have recent experience of a new development nearby where the flats have just one space. This is not enough as many residents have more than one vehicle, so park in local roads.

Any assumption by planning officials that the residents will more than likely use public transport, and therefore the development will only require one parking space for every two flats, is doubtful.

P MIDDLEDITCH Via email 

READING about the developers’ plans to turn the former tax office at Alexander House in Southend into flats.

Has anyone on our local council even bothered to consider where the hundreds of new residents will be able to get registered with doctors or NHS dentists once it is opened?

It is almost impossible to find an NHS dentist now - and then of course we are still waiting with bated breath to see if the Queensway development happens.

I shudder to think what kind of pressure this will eventually put on local services if this ever comes to fruition, We see ambulances in queues outside Southend Hospital most weekends. However will they cope with thousands more families to accommodate if all this goes ahead? Very worrying.

B MARSHALL St George’s Park Avenue, Westcliff

I read with weary resignation news that development plans for Alexander House, the former HMRC tax office and imposing presence at the main junction into Southend town centre, have been resubmitted.

Noting that the developers now want to cram in an additional 223 flats - up from 334 - is perhaps not surprising in an age where profit overrides all.

It’s an astonishing increase. If approved, it follows that flats will be, on average, 40 per cent smaller than previously planned, and all 557 crammed – or should that be cramped – into the same space.

It isn’t as if modern town centre flats are particularly spacious to start with. And where are all those extra cars going to be parked?

On the flip side, the views for owners fortunate enough to reside on the south-facing higher floors will be a godsend. Taking in the stunning panorama of the estuary will at least be some consolation before taking a gulp and retiring back inside the shoebox.

ROBERT GAGE Queensland Avenue, Rochford