Braintree
A120 dualling scheme ‘will add £2.2 billion to Essex economy’
Wednesday 9 September 2020
THE A120 is to be dualled between Braintree and the A12. The scheme has been included in the government’s latest Investment Strategy RIS2, which runs from April 2020 to March 2025. Highways England will take over work on the project from the county council, which prefers Option D, running from Galleys Corner at Braintree to […] Read more >
Too-Goods, Long Richards and Bullocks’ Valley
Monday 27 July 2020
Writer Anne Boileau wrote this delightful piece about ever-changing times in the tiny village of Colne Engaine on the Essex-Suffolk border. “I thought it might get people comparing their own villages and field names,” says Anne. The people who lived in the village of Colne Engaine more than 100 years ago have left us no photographs […] Read more >
CPRE Essex gives £500 towards Bocking Windmill painting and cleaning
Tuesday 7 July 2020
CPRE Essex has donated £500 towards the maintenance of Bocking Windmill. The money, from the countryside charity’s Mill Fund, has been given to the Friends of Bocking Windmill to help cover the cost of painting and cleaning. The striking postmill with its two-storey roundhouse, owned by Braintree District Council and run by the Friends, has […] Read more >
Marking time in Coggeshall
Friday 3 July 2020
The Covid-19 lockdown is, it would appear, easing before presumably coming to an end. It has unquestionably been a difficult time – tragically so for many – but there has been light amid the gloom. In this delightful essay, writer Anne Boileau reflects on what lockdown taught us and is thankful for the good people… […] Read more >
Our Lovely Essex: another winning treble from Ken McDonald
Tuesday 30 June 2020
Ken McDonald is another supporter whose photographs have helped make Our Lovely Essex such a success. Here are three more. As ever, thanks Ken! Read more >
A12 widening scheme loses government funding after garden-communities plan crumbles
Wednesday 24 June 2020
The collapse of plans for a cluster of ‘garden communities’ in north Essex has claimed another victim… or success, depending on your viewpoint. Last month’s announcement that a planning inspector had found proposals for large housing developments at West Tey and West of Braintree ‘unsound’ has led to the government withdrawing £272 million previously earmarked […] Read more >
The quarry that would ‘destroy a landscape shaped by hundreds of years of history’
Tuesday 23 June 2020
A new quarry proposed for Coggeshall “would affect the lives of local residents for decades and destroy for ever a landscape shaped by hundreds of years of history”, according to a campaign group. CRAQ (Coggeshall Residents Against the Quarry) says that if the county council approves a planning application for the quarry, “it will cause […] Read more >
Plans for north Essex new towns in ruins as inspector finds them ‘unsound’
Monday 25 May 2020
Plans for a cluster of ‘garden communities’ (or new towns) in north Essex lie in tatters after a planning inspector declared them ‘unsound’. Proposals for West Tey (24,000 homes), West of Braintree (13,000) and East of Colchester (9,000) had been included in a Section 1 Local Plan document put together by Braintree District Council, Colchester […] Read more >
Garden communities project wins £550,000 from government
Monday 20 January 2020
As the three ‘garden communities’ proposed by Uttlesford District Council struggle to make progress (see here http://cpressex.org.uk/uttlesford-council-recommended-to-pull-its-local-plan-so-what-now-for-essex-garden-communities/), those included in the NEGC package put together by Braintree, Colchester and Tendring councils have been given a lift by the government. NEGC (North Essex Garden Communities) has been given £550,000 by Westminster to progress its plans for […] Read more >
North Essex Garden Communities: why they simply aren’t needed
Wednesday 8 January 2020
Next week (Tuesday, January 14), examination reopens into the North Essex Authorities Joint Strategic Plan. One of its principle policies comprises the building of three ‘garden communities’. Here, Michael Hand, planning adviser for CPRE Essex, explains why their development is not only damaging but unnecessary In advance of this month’s resumed Examination of the North […] Read more >