12 April 2012
The Braintree District Council Local Development Framework Panel met last night (Wednesday 11th April) at the Public Hall in Witham to decide future additional development sites in the town.
These sites will be on top of the 1,000 houses already allocated in the Core Strategy on greenfield land at Lodge Farm (700), off Forest Road in Rivenhall Parish (300) and on other sites.
The Panel agreed to add 50 affordable houses on a greenfield site off Blunts Hall Road/Teign Drive, to not allow major building on the controversial Gimsons site near the River Walk and to defer consideration of the Conrad Road site while discussions continue about alternatives such as converting under-used existing office buildings.
The Panel also voted to withdraw Bellfield, opposite Morrisons in Witham, as land for potential housing development.
A Conservative councillor had proposed building a commuter car park over the land and Essex County Council, the landowner, has been trying to build houses on the land since the 1980s.
Witham and Braintree Green Party has successfully campaigned to keep the land as open space at every Local Plan since the 1980s and would have been prepared to do so again had the land remained in the current LDF process.
District Councillor James Abbott spoke at last night's meeting, at a previous LDF Panel meeting, and wrote to the Council some weeks ago, to urge that the land should be protected in the LDF, which will run until 2026.
Cllr. James Abbott said
"The hall was packed last night and these were never going to be easy decisions for the Panel given the top-down housing numbers which leads to greenfield sites being promoted.
Obviously residents near the Blunts Hall Road site will be dissapointed at the allocation of land near them, but overall the Panel did a reasonable job of trying to juggle some very difficult choices.
It was right to withdraw the Gimsons site from plans for major housing development - the site was always going to be wholly unsuitable. We are also pleased that the Panel has deferred consideration of the Conrad Road site (1) whilst discussions continue on finding alternative non-greenfield sites such as under-used offices - which could be used for flats for younger people. The priority should be for affordable housing for local people.
The decision on Bellfield was very welcome. This relatively small area of land has survived numerous attempts to develop it over recent decades. It has become an important small wildlife site as trees have self seeded and have grown up relatively undisturbed, now providing good habitat for birds.
The site is in a part of Witham where it makes a valuable contribution to a greener environment, next to a busy road and the heavily developed area around Morrisons.
Part of the site was used many years ago to dump material from the former Crittall factory site where Morrisons now stands and so this would have been a major constraint on development, as would the issue of adding another access on to the Morrisons roundabout. This would have clearly caused more traffic congestion and more air pollution along Braintree Road.
So we are very pleased that the Council has decided to give the land a designation of Visually Important Open Space."
The Greens support the provision of affordable housing for local people on suitable sites in Witham and nearby villages and have also long proposed a package of measures to help reduce commuter parking issues in and around Witham, including commuter bus links, better cycling facilities and potentially decking part of the Easton Road car park.
At the LDF Panel meeting last night, Cllrs. James Abbott and Bob Wright attended, as they have at nearly all the LDF and related meetings and hearings over recent years.
Cllr. Abbott spoke to urge the Panel to not overshoot the additional number of houses the Council needed in Witham (95) because so many had already been allocated and Witham's transport system would be put under excessive pressure if too much development was allocated. He also pointed to the unfinished Maltings Lane development and the deficit of public services to support the growing population of the town and surrounding villages - such as the long awaited local community clinic/hospital.
ENDS
Notes:
(1) At an earlier stage of the LDF process, the Conrad Road site had been supported by both Witham Town Council and Rivenhall Parish Council as a "least worst" option instead of the Forest Road Growth Location.
However, that support was withdrawn following the decision by BDC, despite overwhelming local opposition, to allocate the Forest Road site, in Rivenhall Parish, for 300 houses. The decision process included a whipped vote at a Full Council meeting of BDC, orchestrated by the Conservatives.
If both the Conrad Road and Forest Road sites were to be developed it would add at least 400 houses to the north Witham/Rivenhall fringe area, leading to increased traffic along the roads into Witham and through Rivenhall which already have constraints such as the daily peak-time congestion along Braintree Road and the sub-standard A12 junctions at Rivenhall End.
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