Robust Rebuttal of Elsenham Eco-town to be Made

9.18.10am GMT Wed 18th Mar 2009

Uttlesford's environment committee last night (Tuesday 17 March) started to live up to the council's public commitment made in April last year to oppose totally and to campaign against an eco-town between Elsenham and Henham. This turn of events was the result of a proposal from Liberal Democrat councillors Catherine and Alan Dean. Until two weeks ago, and before the Liberal Democrats and the Save our Village campaigners started to put on pressure, the council's only response to the latest consultation on Eco towns was to be a short two paragraphs saying virtually nothing about why North East Elsenham was the wrong location for a large, new settlement.

Cllr Alan Dean asked committee chair Cllr Susan Barker when the campaign agreed last April had taken place. Cllr Barker admitted that the decision to campaign against the eco-town had not been carried out by the council.

Cllr Catherine Dean spelled out a long list of reasons why the developer's proposals were not credible. These included suggestions of a bus-priority road lane to Stansted Mountfitchet on narrow country roads and other claims that eco-town traffic could be kept out of that neighbouring village. She wanted to know what effect the closure and avoidance of the Elsenham railway level crossing would have on other roads and the implications for secondary education of relocating the Mountfitchet Mathematics and Computing College.

Cllr Alan Dean was applauded by a large crowd of residents from the Elsenham and Henham area when he claimed the Conservative-led council was spending more time and taxpayers' money trying to work out how the eco-town could be made to work instead of rebutting the proposal and demonstrating why it is the wrong plan in the wrong place.

Cllr Jim Ketteridge, the Conservative council leader, introduced a party political note by trying to put the blame for the Eco-town onto the Liberal Democrats. This brought cries of derision from the public gallery and a riposte from the Lib Dem member for Henham, David Morson. He reminded the meeting that it was the Conservatives' own proposal for a new eco-settlement at Elsenham that had encouraged the government's eco-town plan.

Despite the political ding-dong, all Liberal Democrats and some Conservatives voted for a robust rebuttal to be sent to the government. No-one voted against. The council's planning officers will now prepare the robust response for members to agree at the next full council meeting on April 21st.

The full text of the resolution is:

"The promoter of an Eco town at North East Elsenham makes claims for sustainability and deliverability which have not been submitted to rigorous scrutiny. This Committee doubts that many of these assumptions are attainable, and remains totally opposed to an Eco town at this location, as resolved by the Full Council on 22 April 2008.

"The Environment Committee therefore resolves to require a robust report rebutting the Elsenham eco-town proposal to be submitted for endorsement at the Full Council meeting on 21 April 2009."

Related Link:

Read what the Save Our Villages campaign made of the meeting here.