Date issued: 3 December 2018
Revisions to the Braintree, Colchester and Tendring Councils’ Garden Community proposals are expected to go before the Government’s Planning Inspector in the autumn of 2019, it has been announced.
In September the three councils, working in partnership with Essex County Council, renewed their support for the Garden Community approach for the long-term provision of homes and jobs, and last month had the green light for their approach to gathering the evidence required. This followed the Inspector’s initial findings in June.
It had been planned that additional evidence would be assessed by council committees in spring 2019 before going back to examination in the summer of 2019. However due to the tight timescales involved to allow any revisions to be agreed by each council, it has now been agreed that this will be moved to after the election period, with the examination likely to take place in October.
A spokesperson for the North Essex Councils said: “One of the key pieces of work being undertaken is a sustainability appraisal, which is effectively a piece of work looking at the environmental impacts of the proposals in comparison to other potential sites and varying sizes of development. This is something which we will be consulting on with the public in the New Year.
“This has meant we are working to a very tight timescale and, as the Inspector has rightly identified, while we are under pressure to ensure a sound Local Plan is in place, it is critical that the evidence base that is being produced is the most comprehensive and thorough possible and there is sufficient time built into the programme to allow for constructive local engagement and then for councillors to consider the findings through our various committees. Moving the inspection to the autumn will allow us to do this.”
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Page last reviewed: 3 December 2018