A consultation is running regarding the planned Tendring-Colchester Borders Garden Community. The consultation covers, among other things, the proposed country park area to the South-East of Greenstead and Longridge Park.
The consultation documents can be accessed and comments can be made here:
The deadline for responses is 5pm, Monday 25th April 2022.
Please register on the website, have a look at the documents, and make as many comments as you can. In particular, we would like you to state the following, if you agree:
"There should be no new development at all for 1.5km South-East of Greenstead and Longridge Park (so also no university development North of the A133).
However in the spirit of compromise with the university, as a fall-back position, I support Approach C for land use as proposed by the Tendring-Colchester Borders Garden Community Liaison Group (CLG), as an absolute minimum size for the country park.
The Land Use document in the consultation states that the country park designation will 'give extra protection to the countryside to the west of the Garden Community, to maintain long-term physical and visual separation to the nearby settlement of Colchester' so it does not make sense to have any encroachment of the university or other buildings on the Salary Brook slopes, as in Approach B or close by, as in Approach A. The section 'Strategic Green Gaps' in the Land Use document also supports this argument. For these reasons, Approach C is superior."
Please also add the bullet points under 'Approach C' below to your consultation responses, to explain your support for Approach C, if you agree.
Also include items from the 'Other Points' section below, as you see fit.
Approaches A, B and C
CHEAG has campaigned since 2013 for a 1.5km buffer or country park to the South East of Greenstead and Longridge Park, and this did have the support of many councillors. However, the council officers are currently making proposals as described in this section.
One of the questions raised in the consultation is to choose between 2 approaches - A and B which particularly impact the layout of the country park just North of the A133, and how much land Essex University is allocated there.
The diagrams can be found on this page:
Land Uses and Spatial Approach
There are basic maps there and interactive maps below those, which show the layout in more detail.
CHEAG, and the Tendring-Colchester Borders Garden Community Liaison Group (CLG) have the following views (which were prepared by the CLG):
Approach A
Splits proposed university expansion and Knowledge Gateway developments from existing university and Knowledge Gateway areas across the other side of an extremely busy and dangerous (to pedestrians ie students) dual carriageway.
- protects the designated country park area from
University and Knowledge Gateway buildings inconsistent with the landscape
and built right up to the country park ridgeline and protruding over the
Salary Brook slopes (Approach A)
- rejects University expansion and Knowledge Gateway
buildings spilling halfway down Salary Brook slopes with a junction right
onto the country park hillside (Approach B),
- provides a buffer area from the ridgeline to the start
of University expansion of some 500m-600m to be put to wildflower meadows,
picnic area, outside gym equipment
- protects the Wivenhoe green buffer zone from building
works and meets University & Knowledge Gateway expansion
needs
- will
provide access via improved existing entrance to farmland at the traffic
lights opposite the B1027
- sports
fields easily accessible from University with light controlled pedestrian
crossing or lit CCTV monitored underpass
- in
bringing closer to Garden Community development, facilitates local
accommodation and walk to work schemes
- Infrastructure - mecdial facilities, primary schools, ground-source heat pumps, should be committed-to at the start and built alongside the housing to avoid pressure on existing infrastructure facilities in neighbouring communities.
- All garden fences should have hedgehog holes and some should have wildlife ponds, and other wildlife-friendly features
- Any new road in the area should incorporate noise shielding to prevent disturbance to residents from traffic noise.
- Housing design in the new development should be comparable with the best in Colchester, photos of which Colchester East Action Group has sent to planners.
- The developers should contribute to the support of Colchester town centre, including its historic buildings.
- All houses to have good-sized natural, green front and rear gardens and there should be restrictions preventing them being concreted-over.
- Houses in the estate should have mutually-compatible appearance.
- There should be a height restriction on buildings, so that they will not be visible from Greenstead and Longridge Park.
- Cul-de-sacs rather than continuously-connected streets would prevent racing of cars. Maybe pedestrian/cycle access between streets.
- Footpaths in green areas or country parks should be winding, rather than straight, to give a country atmosphere. The path behind Dunnock Way in Colchester is winding.
- All houses and buildings should be well-architected with character and strong visual appeal.
- There should be safe cycle routes, freedom from car pollution, large country parks for walking.
- There should be limits on number of cars per household, reliable public transport, safe cycle routes.
- There should be a country park covering Salary Brook, its surrounds in its valley and the slopes leading South-East, up to and 200 metres beyond Home Wood, The Strip, Thousand Acres and Churn Wood. This area is regularly used by walkers and is an important area for wildlife, as demonstrated by studies published by the Colchester Natural History Society. This area should be maintained for these purposes and protected from any development.
