Braintree
Bocking to get 265-home development after Gladman wins appeal
Monday 14 September 2020
Gladman has struck in Bocking. The land agent has won an appeal it launched in 2017 against Braintree District Council’s failure to rule on its application for a housing development within the statutory 13-week period. The site, off Church Street, had been targeted with two proposals: one for 265 units and the other for 300. […] Read more >
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 >
North Essex garden communities: give your views at public events
Tuesday 12 November 2019
As most visitors to this website will know, north Essex is being targeted for a series of ‘garden communities’ – or new towns in old money. The political momentum behind them is such that their development seems more of a probability than a possibility, so the important thing is to ensure they are built as […] Read more >
This year’s AGM (on October 5!) can be just part of a great day out at Cressing Temple Barns
Monday 16 September 2019
Enjoy tea at The Barns, Cressing Temple Monday, September 16, 2019 Here’s another reminder that this year’s Annual General Meeting of CPRE Essex is coming up quickly! It is being held at the fantastic venue of Cressing Temple Barns, near Braintree, on Saturday, October 5. The guest speaker will be Simon Amstutz, manager of the […] Read more >
‘Deeply upsetting’ decision as Hatfield Peverel housing schemes are backed
Monday 15 July 2019
It’s been one of the most high-profile battles against unnecessary development Essex has seen over the past couple of years, but that wasn’t enough to stop plans for 340 new homes in Hatfield Peverel being approved by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The news that James Brokenshire had granted planning […] Read more >
Bats at Marks Hall: a conservation success story
Monday 8 April 2019
Simon Leatherdale tells the fascinating, and encouraging, story of how a positive approach and determination to succeed helped develop one of the most important bat hibernation sites in the country Essex is not renowned for its bats. With over-development, ever-increasing industry and the intensive ‘pharma-cist’ style of agriculture, it is no surprise that the number […] Read more >
May date set for reopening of appeal on 265-home scheme
Monday 11 March 2019
Campaigners must wait until May before a resumption in the battle to save a stretch of farmland from housing development. The saga began with land agent Gladman Developments Ltd applying to Braintree District Council for planning permission for the building of 300 houses off Church Street, Bocking. The three fields targeted are still being farmed […] Read more >
Airfield could be hosting almost 5,000 homes
Monday 25 February 2019
North Essex, already facing the threat of three proposed “garden communities”, has a new mass development to consider: almost 5,000 new homes on the former airfield at RAF Wethersfield. While the proposals for the garden communities – at West Tey (24,000 homes), West of Braintree (13,000) and East of Colchester (9,000) – are struggling to […] Read more >