New Tendring Local Plan Review

Summary

I received an email from Tendring Council on 25th April 2014, see here for the full text. It will probably have been sent to everyone who commented to them earlier in the year.

According to the email, Tendring Council are going to have to conduct another review of their local plan, mainly to make sure enough new housing is included.

Tendring Council Document

There is a detailed Tendring Council document about this new local plan review here:

Council - 25 March 2014 - Progressing the Local Plan and Establishing a Local Plan Committee

In the January 2014 Local Plan Focussed Review, the 'Colchester Fringe' was identified as 'broad area for possible longer-term growth post 2024' . The 25 March 2014 document states:

Page 9:
"[Essex] County Council also questions [Tendring] Council’s ability to deliver the objectives for economic growth and job creation in its Economic Development Strategy without a more positive strategy for housing development. In particular, it questions whether identifying very vague ‘broad locations’ for longer-term growth around Clacton, Harwich and the Colchester Fringe will provide a sufficient level of certainty for developers and external funding agencies (such as the Local Enterprise Partnership) to bring investment to the area. The County Council has suggested therefore that the Local Plan should identify specific sites for development for the full length of the 15 year plan period, not just the first 10 years."

Public Involvement

The public can attend meetings of the new Tendring Council Local Plan Committee scheduled for 13 May, 15 July, 30 September, 2 December 2014, all at 6pm. Write-ups will be on the Tendring Council website.

I haven't had a chance to read all of the above document in detail yet, but the next date of interest is the 13 May 2014 meeting mentioned above.

Regarding public consultations, the document says:

On page 2:
"It is anticipated that if work begins on a new version of the Local Plan in April 2014, it can be published for initial consultation in late 2014, published for final consultation in mid-2015 following the local elections, submitted to the Secretary of State before the end of 2015 and adopted by April 2016."

Bottom Page 7, top of Page 8:
"It is envisaged that there will be two further rounds of public consultation. The first consultation will be on the ‘preferred options draft’ i.e. a version of the new Local Plan indicating the Council’s preferred approach and explaining which alternative options were considered and discounted. It this stage it will be important to ensure effective engagement with communities, particularly in those areas affected by new developments. It is proposed that the Local Plan Committee would work with Officers to shape and agree the approach to community involvement to ensure this is ffective as possible.

The second consultation will be on the ‘proposed submission draft’ i.e. the final version of the plan that the Council intends to submit to the Secretary of State to be examined by a Planning Inspector, having taken into account any comments received in response to the preferred options draft. At this stage, interested parties will be invited to make any final comments on the soundness of the plan which will then be forwarded to the Inspector.

These public consultation exercises will be carried out in line with the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 and the Council’s latest ‘Statement of Community Involvement’ (SCI)."

On page 15:
"October/November 2014 – Consider and agree the new Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and the programme of public consultation on the Local Plan preferred options document."

Tendring Council Email Newsletter

Tendring Council will probably be sending out an email newsletter. If you want to subscribe, I suggest you contact them at the email address at the bottom of the following page:

The Tendring District Local Plan

(That page hadn't been updated to reflect the contents of the email I received from Tendring Council, as at the time of writing.)

Regards
James
Colchester East Action Group (CHEAG)

University-Councils Link-Up

Last updated of this post: 26th April 2014

Here is some news about Essex University and the Councils linking-up:

Daily Gazette: Essex University to lead north Essex out of recession

That article mentions the link road.

It says the full story is in Friday's paper edition (25th April 2014). There wasn't too much more of substance in the paper edition.

There was also an article in the EADT:

EADT: Essex - New deal signed between university and councils

There will obviously also be official literature put out by the organisations concerned. Let me know if you find anything.

My feeling is that a link road from the university to the A120 and a new railway station is overkill just for the University's Knowledge Gateway. However, I am not really in a position to say. If anyone has time to analyse all the facts and figures, let me know! However, a new road and station would probably serve a new housing estate, as well, if a housing estate is built.

The news of the link-up is relevant because the 'Colchester Fringe' has been promoted as a growth area based upon mixed residential and university-led employment developments. This is discussed in the 'Site Promoters - Smaller Rural Settlements' document linked-to in my first blog post. We should keep an eye on how important the university-led employment aspect is going forward.

I believe in campaigning to keep the sloping land area mentioned in this blog as a rural green area.

Separately, someone made a comment that local politicians and MPs can't actually do much to prevent housing developments, but they have to make as much noise as possible, so that they appear to be doing something. I think the most effective thing to do is to object to inappropriate aspects of developments directly to the councils' planning departments, when the time comes.

Regards
James
Colchester East Action Group (CHEAG)

Crediting

As mentioned elsewhere, I am happy for you to use any material from the CHEAG blog for any purpose you see fit, and I don't require that a credit is given to the blog.

However, if you do use material from the CHEAG blog, I would prefer that you do credit the blog if you can, because it will help create extra publicity for the blog, and get a better return on the investement in creating the blog. If possible, please include a link to the blog.

The main aim is to object to inappropriate development.

Regards
James
Colchester East Action Group (CHEAG)