News
Lower Thames Crossing consultation: time (really is!) running out to make your voice heard
Tuesday 11 August 2020
Time is almost up! You have until 11.59pm tomorrow (Wednesday, August 12) to take part in Highways England’s consultation on further design revisions to the proposed Lower Thames Crossing. There might not be enough time now for you to make a lengthy response, but it would be useful to make your voice heard. After all, […] Read more >
Planning for the Future: London Green Belt Council welcomes countryside protections but fears for local democracy
Thursday 6 August 2020
The London Green Belt Council, of which CPRE Essex is an associate member, has described government proposals for reform of the planning system as “a mixed bag”. It applauds the provision of some countryside protection in the Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty but is disheartened by the threat to local democracy and […] Read more >
‘Pitiful’ on carbon-neutral new homes and failing to build trust in the planning system: CPRE responds to ‘once-in-a-generation’ reforms
Thursday 6 August 2020
CPRE, the countryside charity, has launched a wide-ranging criticism of “once-in-a-generation reforms” to the country’s planning system proposed by the government today (Thursday, August 6). Described as “landmark reforms to speed up and modernise the planning system and get the country building”, the changes proposed in the Planning for the Future White Paper fail to […] Read more >
How the Chancellor’s ‘mini-Budget’ missed the mark on transport and housing
Friday 31 July 2020
CPRE, the countryside charity, has said that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s ‘mini-Budget’ missed the mark on transport and housing. The Chancellor had been aiming to revive the economy through his A Plan for Jobs mini-Budget, announced earlier this month, but Tom Fyans, CPRE campaigns and policy director, said: “While we have seen promising starts on energy […] Read more >
You only have until August 14 to respond to Lower Thames Crossing design consultation
Wednesday 29 July 2020
This is a reminder that Highways England is consulting on further revisions to the design of the Lower Thames Crossing. If you want to take part, you need to be quick as the consultation closes on Wednesday, August 12. We can comment on the proposed refinements, which include: Minor refinements to elements of the […] Read more >
Government responds to CPRE Essex letter on Landscape Review
Tuesday 28 July 2020
The final report of the much-anticipated Landscape Review, published in September 2019, concluded more than a year’s analysis of whether protections for England’s National Parks and AONBs were still fit for purpose. The government had ordered the review in May 2018, asking “in particular, what might be done better, what changes will help and whether […] 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 slates government’s proposals for planning deregulation
Tuesday 14 July 2020
The government’s proposed planning reforms could amount to “the exact opposite of building back better”, CPRE believes. Downing Street says its proposals are “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War”. Amended planning rules, due to be in place by September, would permit: Developers to “demolish and rebuild” vacant and […] Read more >
Essex benefits from first AONB extension in 29 years
Monday 13 July 2020
The Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is to be expanded – partly into Essex. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced last week (Tuesday, July 7) that the AONB, which covered 401 square kilometres from Kessingland to Harwich, and inland to the edge of Ipswich, was to grow […] 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 >