LIB DEM CALL TO GET OUT DRAWING BOARD BACKED BY ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL AS UTTLESFORD HOUSING PLANS GET THUMBS DOWN

11.11.48pm GMT Sun 13th Jan 2008

Uttlesford Conservatives' proposed new town in Elsenham and Henham.

Essex County Council has delivered a stunning rebuttal of the controversial housing plans of Uttlesford District Council's Conservatives. The county's response to the consultation that ended on 11 January says there is insufficient evidence to support the choice of 'Helshenham' new town between Elsenham and Henham and that more technical work and further public consultation is needed before Uttlesford can put its plans to the government.

Commenting on the county council's submission, environment committee member Cllr Alan Dean, who represents Stansted, said: "This bombshell from planning experts only confirms what many of us having been saying since September. The plans steamrolled through the council by the Tories in a fit of arrogance are not credible. Many thousands of pounds have been squandered on a flawed consultation at a time when money is in very short supply. Judicial reviews are looming and would involve expensive legal fees. The competence and fitness of Uttlesford Conservatives to lead our council must be in serious doubt."

The county council report contains many serious criticisms of Uttlesford's consultation documentation and the housing and employment proposals:

· The justification for the preferred Option 4 at Elsenham/Henham is not transparent

· The sustainability appraisal does not provide sufficiently forensic examination of the four options

· A comparison must be undertaken of alternative locations, (a proposal from the opposition groups that the Tories rejected on 4 September)

· The present core strategy will struggle at the public plan examination when tested to show that reasonable alternatives have been considered

· Uttlesford has not justified its claim that the existing larger settlements cannot be expanded

· Option 4 at Elsenham will deny affordable homes for people who want to live in other parts of the district

· Road access to the Elsenham and Henham area from Stansted and Takeley is constrained and 'substantial infrastructure investment would be necessary'.

· A 3,000 home settlement is not big enough to support local services

· Building next to a railway station will just encourage long distance commuting rather than local employment

· The proposed new town would not be big enough and is in the wrong place to sustain a new bus service

· Uttlesford's documents should have said that a new secondary school at Elsenham might mean relocating Stansted's Mountfitchet Mathematics and Computing College.

"As a Stansted councillor, I am particularly dismayed that Uttlesford refused to tell a fuller story about secondary schools. The council made out that a new secondary school at Elsenham was a reason for choosing Option 4, despite my telling them Stansted would lose its school. Teacher has now given the council a black mark!"

There is an implicit criticism from Essex that Uttlesford should have discussed all these points with the county council and others before announcing its preferred housing option.

Alan Dean concluded: "This amateurish approach to planning policy making by the Tories just has to stop. Local planning is a very costly and important business that does not lend itself to pork barrel politics and high handed behaviour. If our Conservative colleagues have now learned their lesson, all councillors may be able to do a better job next time round."