News
Castle Point agrees to step up the pace on Local Plan
Wednesday 18 July 2018
Castle Point Borough Council is to speed up its Local Plan timetable in a bid to stop central government taking over the process. The local authority has also agreed to produce a joint spatial plan with five other local planning authorities in south Essex – Basildon, Brentwood, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock – and the county […] Read more >
Garden communities plan hits the rocks
Wednesday 18 July 2018
Plans to build three garden communities in north Essex have been savaged by a planning inspector, who found them “unsound” and needing “significant” further work. The proposals for West Tey (24,000 homes), West of Braintree (13,000) and East of Colchester (9,000) were contained in a Section 1 Local Plan put together by Braintree District Council, […] Read more >
CPRE Essex: we have a new chairman
Wednesday 11 July 2018
Essex has a new chairman – and he is ready and raring to go as we step up our efforts to keep the county the very special place it still is. It will not be easy. The pressures of development are arguably greater than ever before. The clamour to build houses to help fire the […] Read more >
Meet David Knight, the new man at the helm
Wednesday 11 July 2018
Taking on the chairmanship of CPRE Essex is no light task, but in David Knight we believe we have just the man for the job. Of course there is no one better placed to tell you a little about himself than David, so over to the new chairman: “I have lived in Essex all my […] Read more >
The battle to save the countryside around Harlow
Monday 9 July 2018
The concept of Harlow and Gilston Garden Town has been around for a long time. Originally tagged Harlow North, the proposal for some 10,000 new homes on greenfield land on the Essex-Hertfordshire border has preyed on local residents’ peace of mind and quality of life for years. Now, it seems, the planned ‘garden town’ could […] Read more >
We can use brownfield sites for a million homes… and save our countryside
Monday 9 July 2018
It might seem obvious to many of us, but if we focus attention on building on brownfield (previously developed) land rather than greenfield sites, we will be both making better use of derelict urban and post-industrial land and safeguarding our countryside from development. However, not everyone would appear to agree and CPRE’s contention that we […] Read more >
Stansted: north Essex escapes the worst but threat of expansion still hovers
Sunday 8 July 2018
The announcement in June that the government was backing a third runway at Heathrow Airport made front-page news – and campaigners against Stansted expansion were of course relieved that the Essex airport didn’t feature in a story that has something of a never-ending feel to it. Stansted had already failed to make the final round […] Read more >
Hatfield Peverel in the spotlight as BBC camera crews visit
Saturday 7 July 2018
Essex took centre stage when BBC’s Countryfile visited Hatfield Peverel. The TV cameras were in the village, close to the A12 between Chelmsford and Witham, for a feature on land agents that look to exploit planning loopholes and force through housing developments outside adopted Local Plans and against residents’ wishes. National attention focused on the […] Read more >
What are we to make of the 25 Year Environment Plan?
Friday 29 June 2018
The publication earlier this year of the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan met – as perhaps is the case with most things emanating from our political leaders – a mixed response. It was difficult to argue against the principles it embraced and most commentators have broadly welcomed the plan, although it has been criticised for […] Read more >