Council to apply for injunction to stop greenfield site development

Date issued: 24 August 2020

Colchester Borough Council intends to serve an injunction to prevent a developer continuing unauthorised work on a greenfield site at Easthorpe.

The move follows a temporary stop notice that sought to prevent ongoing ground works being undertaken in a rural location without planning consent.

The latest action was triggered by the erection of an advert for chalet-style homes following the construction of extensive hard standings and other related works – even though the council is still considering a planning application for the site.

Cllr Mike Lilley, Portfolio Holder for Communities, Wellbeing and Public Safety, said: “It is extremely disappointing that the developers have failed to respect the planning process and pressed ahead, regardless, with a change of use of the land. It is not acceptable for anyone to seek to bounce the planning authority into a done deal through unauthorised development.

“This is a rural location and not well served by appropriate infrastructure. Exceptional reasons would have to be demonstrated before we set aside our adopted planning policies, which exist for good reason: to ensure new development only takes place in highly accessible and sustainable locations already allocated in our adopted plans.”