Elsenham New Town: Tories Fail To Listen Again

7.25.00am GMT Wed 31st Oct 2007

Conservative councillors have pushed through plans for a new town in Elsenham without proper consideration of evidence.

This evening (Tuesday, 30th October), at a packed meeting of its Environment Committee, the Lib Dem and Independent members of Uttlesford District Council moved a motion asking that no specific locations for new housing should be proposed until more serious technical background work had been done on the Council's Local Development Framework. The motion was lost by 9 votes to 6 and the public consultation process will continue on to the next stage with the proposal for a new settlement between Henham and Elsenham as the preferred option. The motion was arguing that, in the case of a new settlement, the Council should not be site-specific, but in the case of a hierarchy, the possible development sites should be made known in the consultation, but without being too number-specific.

Cllr David Morson, Liberal Democrat Member for Henham and Elsenham, in a passionate appeal to the Committee, said "I am not here just to represent my ward but to safeguard the reputation of the District Council which will suffer badly if "Go. East" rejects these proposals because no proper consultation has taken place.

Cllr Morson continued, "The process has been flawed from beginning to end and there has been no proper consultation with local people. The developers claim that it will be easy to overcome the infrastructure issues, but it is clear that road and rail routes would not be capable of servicing 3000 new houses without the addition of the new roads which would be provided by a second runway at Stansted." Cllr Morson was warmly applauded for his speech.

Cllr Peter Wilcock, Leader of Uttlesford Lib Dem Group, also spoke "Many Councillors are concerned that the contents of the Conservative Administration's proposal were agreed without full debate on the alternative approaches to the housing allocation which is needed in this area just to meet the needs of the local population growth. However these houses must be provided in sustainable communities and be socially sustainable, continuing the tradition in Uttlesford of strong local communities. It's easy for a developer to build houses then leave it to others to create the community."

"We need to do a full appraisal of the ability of our communities to cope with more housing, and to establish what additional infrastructure would be required to support the additional housing. Only then should we be looking at detailed options allocating specific numbers of houses to different parts of the district. When planning any new houses, we need to ensure that as many houses as possible are affordable to satisfy the high local need."

"I am very disappointed that the Conservatives' proposals were reconfirmed this evening. Our preferred option - the distribution of development across a hierarchy of larger settlements and in smaller villages - would have been fairer and allowed for greater social sustainability."

Notes:

1. Uttlesford District Council needs to accommodate about 4,200 additional new homes.

2. The Liberal Democrat Motion proposed by Cllr Catherine Dean and seconded by Cllr Antoinette Wattebot:

A) The decision made at the Environment Committee on 4 September be rescinded.

B) The Council's options for consultation to be:

1) Distribution of development between the District's three main settlements.

2) Distribution of development across a hierarchy of larger settlements and in smaller villages. The settlements identified should stand, but there should be no numbers attributed at this stage.

3) Development in a new settlement in the district. No specific site should be identified at this stage

C) The hierarchy option (line 2 above) to be the preferred option.

D) The consultation on options should be comprehensive and include a wide range of stakeholders and forums. Sufficient information should be made available on each site for evidence-based decisions to be made.