Full House in Elsenham

10.29.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 3rd Oct 2007

Elsenham Village Hall was packed with local residents opposed to Conservative plans for a new town.

It was like a cinema in the 1950s at Elsenham Village Hall on Tuesday evening. Over 250 crowded into the hall for Uttlesford's south west area panel. The queue stretched into the High Street and over 50 people had to be turned away or strained to watch the proceeding through the windows. The people who made up what was probably Uttlesford's highest ever attendance at a council meeting were confused and angry at the Conservative-controlled council's choice in September of a 3,000 plus settlement at Elsenham as its preferred option for housing growth.

The proposer of Option 4, council leader Jim Ketteridge came under immense pressure to explain why he had put forward the Elsenham/Henham scheme as a new settlement. He failed to answer the question 'Why Elsenham?' Speaker after speaker attacked the council for proposing an option that one councillor described as 'undeliverable' and which all residents said could not be accessed by road without causing chaos in all neighbouring villages.

At the end of the meeting a motion from the Liberal Democrats was passed with only two abstentions in a named vote. This said: "The South West Area Panel notes the public disquiet surrounding the announcement of the Council's Options for Growth strategy and its own dissatisfaction with the extent of information available during public engagement through the

panel at previous meetings. It therefore welcomes the decision to call this in to the Scrutiny Committee and urges the council to think again. The Panel believes that no specific locations should be named for the houses at this stage, until further research by the Council's officers is available, carefully evaluated and communicated to members and the residents of Uttlesford."

Attention now switches to the council offices in Saffron Walden at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday when the scrutiny committee debates the call-in of the controversial environment committee decision. Cllr Ketteridge scotched rumours that the Conservatives planned to stifle discussion by moving 'next business'. Will they allow the council to Think Again!?