Darnley Road, Grays Consultation

Consultation on proposals for new homes on the Darnley Road and Crown Road Car Parks in Grays

March 2022

You may know that Thurrock Council has been exploring options to build new homes on the Darnley Road and Crown Road Car Parks to help meet local demand.

(Illustration to show early stage design proposals.)

We believe everyone should have a good quality home. Across the borough, around 1,200 new homes need to be built every year to meet current demand. As a council, we are committed to building high quality new homes, including investing in new council homes.

Building around 57 new homes on the Darnley Road and Crown Road Car Park site would help to provide much needed housing in the local area and make use of an underutilised council-owned car park.

These plans are still at a very early stage and we want to hear your views on our initial ideas. This current consultation, running through March to early April 2022, will introduce our early stage designs and ask for your feedback and suggestions. This feedback will be considered as the proposals are developed further.

We will then have a second phase of consultation on more detailed plans later this year, and a planning application will be submitted after this.

The site and our early stage proposals

The Darnley Road and Crown Road Car Park site is located between Darnley Road to the north, Stanley Road to the east, Crown Road to the south and the Derby Road Bridge (B189) to the west, as shown on the map below.

We are exploring the potential to build a range of new homes here, split over three buildings, ranging in height from two to six storeys. Around 57 new apartments are planned, in a mix of 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom properties. It is too early to confirm the tenure type of the new apartments, but at least 35% would be affordable homes, in line with Council policy.

The design of the buildings is still at an early stage. We have focused so far on thinking about where we could position new buildings on the site and what size of buildings would be appropriate. The current mix of building heights has been designed to be sensitive to existing properties and to create an interesting and attractive development, with the buildings arranged around a central courtyard for new and existing residents to enjoy.

Landscaping would include a grove of trees and planting to encourage wildlife. Vehicular access into and out of the site would be from Darnley Road, with the existing parking areas under Derby Bridge retained. The existing rear track would be maintained so that residents of the Darnley Road houses can continue to access their garages.

The regeneration of the site, including the provision of new landscaping and enhanced footpaths, could also provide a more attractive environment for local residents.

Get Involved

We want to talk to existing residents at an early stage to inform the direction of our plans. This current consultation will run for six weeks until 7 April 2022.

Resident drop-in session

We would like to discuss our ideas with neighbouring residents. We are hosting a consultation drop-in session, which will be an opportunity for you and your neighbours to talk to members of our project team and share your views:

Date: Tuesday 15 March 2022

Time: 3pm - 7pm

Location: The Community House, Sherfield Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6DF

Get in touch

If you have any questions about the proposals or would like to find out more about this consultation process, please get in touch as we will be happy to help.

Phone: 08081 963 996

Email: consult@darnley-road.co.uk

If you would like to share your views, please fill in the survey below.

This consultation closes on 7 April 2022.