The leader of Southend-on-Sea City Council, Cllr Stephen George, reflects on 2022 and looks forward to 2023.
To say it has been an important year in the history of Southend-on-Sea would be an understatement. As the future His Majesty King Charles III visited with the Queen Consort in March to present the letters patent, officially turning Southend from a town into a City, it marked 2022 as a year of transformation.
It was a great day and the crowds turned out for the Royal visit and to commemorate a one-time-only event. Sadly, that wasn’t the only Royal event of the year, with the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabth II seeing the community of Southend once again gathered for a moment of reflection as our City paid tribute to the country’s longest reigning monarch, and to hear the historic proclamation of our new King.
There have been two elections; one by-election in which the people elected Anna Firth as the new Member of Parliament for Southend West, and local elections in May.
In between there have been record breaking visitor numbers to our pier - the longest pleasure pier in the world. We’ve had incredible light and art installations as part of LuminoCity back in February, stunning art displays in September as part of the Southend Art Festival and numerous exhibitions and cultural events in our galleries and museums. We also paid tribute to the memory of Sir David Amess and to mark the first anniversary of his death, a tree was planted in his memory at Chalkwell Park. It was planted using compost from the many flowers that were left across the areas in the days and weeks following his murder on 15 October 2021.
We’ve continued to invest millions into upgrading our roads and pavements, embarked on a huge tree replanting scheme, City Fibre are close to finishing the upgrade of Southend’s 5G network and we built our first net carbon zero council house.
We’ve had our challenges too - especially around social care as the demand for our services and support has risen dramatically against a backdrop of the Covid pandemic. We’ve had to adapt and work more closely with our partners as we develop innovative ways to make sure our residents get what they need.
Then there is, of course the cost-of-living crisis and we are doing everything we can to make sure that the people who need help the most, know where and how to access it. We’ve also set up warm spaces for those who need it - no one should have to choose whether to eat or heat their home, and I hope the warm spaces we’ve set up will help resolve that issue to some extent.;
And there’s no doubt those challenges will continue into 2023. As I’ve already forewarned, we are due to announce a difficult budget in January - one that tries to protect services for the vulnerable as much as possible, while also making savings and raising more money to balance the books. I’m sure that once again the community will pull together and as residents we will support and survive, just as we did through the pandemic. Plus, there are more exciting community events to look forward to, such as the return of LuminoCity and the Haven’s Herd in the City fundraising event.
You cannot admire the light without darkness, good without the bad, highs without the lows. Whatever your thoughts and feelings about your situation and the coming year, I hope you know that if you need help, it’s always available and as a community, we know how to pull together and show that true Southend spirit when it truly counts.
As I said last week, I also want to thank staff for all their efforts in 2022. It has been a very challenging year and all their hard work is appreciated.
I wish you a very happy and healthy 2023.