Colchester
Abberton housing plans backed by councillors
Monday 3 October 2022
Abberton is to have 55 new homes after two joint planning applications were approved. Colchester Borough Council gave outline permission for the schemes from Mersea Homes at two sites close to Langenhoe primary school. The application had been deferred in June by the council’s planning committee so safety concerns could be addressed, but extra conditions […] Read more >
After 25 years, Bertram is moving on to pastures new – thank you from all at CPRE Essex
Wednesday 17 August 2022
We are sad to report that after 25 years of sterling service to CPRE Essex Bertram Rope has decided to retire. Living close to Colchester, Bertram had to deal with many issues over the years but in particular the massive increases in the numbers of houses being proposed or built in what has become one […] Read more >
Body blow for Middlewick campaigners as Colchester Local Plan found sound
Monday 30 May 2022
Some 1,000 houses could be built at Middlewick Ranges after planning inspectors found Colchester Borough Council’s emerging Local Plan ‘sound’. Campaigners have battled hard to save “the green lungs of Colchester, but the Planning Inspectorate’s conclusion on the Plan, which allocates the 215-acre site for some 1,000 properties, community activities and open space, comes as […] Read more >
Fifty years of the Essex Way and the celebrations have started… here are two walks for you to join
Monday 25 April 2022
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Essex Way and, as the group behind the formation of the 81-mile walk, we are keen to play a big part in the celebrations. The Essex Way was conceived via a competition funded by CPRE in 1972. The route was proposed by pupils at Chelmsford Technical High […] Read more >
Sowing the Seeds of Hope
Thursday 9 December 2021
Writer Anne Boileau relates the wholly uplifting tale of a rewilding project in north Essex Alex Stevenson lived in Coggeshall until recently. But now she has revealed herself as an Essex Isabella Tree. A landscape architect and award-winning garden designer, she helped draw up the Coggeshall Neighbourhood Plan and recently organised an eco-fair in the […] Read more >
A12 widening: consultation expected next month
Monday 17 May 2021
Public consultation on the widening of the A12 between Chelmsford and the A120 should begin next month (June), Highways England has announced. Before any work can begin on the scheme, the length of the proposed route will be “investigated for undiscovered archaeology and evidence of local cultural heritage buried in the earth”. Already some 28 […] Read more >
Solar-farm application in to council
Monday 18 January 2021
A solar farm is being targeted for some 240 acres of farmland at Layer de la Haye. The company Low Carbon has applied to Colchester Borough Council for permission to develop the site, behind Waterworks Close and either side of Birch Road on the edge of the village. It would appear to have substantial experience […] Read more >
Inspector dismisses developer’s pandemic claim in appeal against Tiptree homes refusal
Thursday 17 September 2020
A developer has failed in its appeal against Colchester Borough Council’s refusal of plans for 255 new homes in Tiptree. Bloor Homes had argued that the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic meant the council could not demonstrate it had a five-year housing land supply, claiming important sites were now “undeliverable”. However, the planning inspector […] Read more >
Cello Concert with Birdsong
Wednesday 2 September 2020
The writing of Anne Boileau that has graced this website during recent months has both captured the spirit of the age and cast a reflective light of history on where we are today. Here Anne presents Cello Concert with Birdsong, which she describes as “a story with an Essex slant”. “Beatrice Harrison could not have […] Read more >
Consolation… a poem for our times
Friday 14 August 2020
And now for something completely different! In a first for the CPRE Essex website, we present a poem from Anne Boileau, whose writing has enlivened these pages several times before. Anne tells us that this poem, Consolation, “was inspired by the causeway over to Mersea Island, and the winding lanes around there. And of course […] Read more >