Plans for 15,000 new homes in Colchester to be voted on later this month
It's part of a blueprint for the development of the borough over the next decade
Last updated 10th Jun 2022
A blueprint for tens of thousands of new houses in an Essex borough has been found legally sound by the government and is set to be voted on by councillors later this month.
Now it has been given the green light by the planning inspectorate, Colchester Borough Council is able to formally adopt its local plan, which would see it build over 15,000 houses by 2033.
Local plans take years to create, with Colchester’s having been first submitted to the planning inspectorate in 2017, undergoing an independent examination in 2021, and finally being found legally compliant by the planning inspectorate earlier this year.
Here is a rundown of why having a local plan is significant for local councils, some of the key developments planned for the borough and what the council has to do next before it can be fully adopted.
What is a local plan?
Local plans are blueprints which set out a series of policies, strategies and objectives for planning across a given council district.
Local councils are set housing targets by the government and need to be able to demonstrate how they will achieve this.
But in addition to actively planning for new developments and infrastructure, councils can use their local plans to turn down speculative planning applications.
In such a way, local plans give councils more control over exactly what type of houses are built in a borough or district.
However, they must still be compliant with national policy, in line with Section 20 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (amended).
Colchester’s local plan is split into two sections, the first dealing with shared developments with neighbouring councils, and has already been adopted in 2021.
For example, the Tendring/Colchester Borders Garden Community, a new community of approximately 9,000 houses, is primarily dealt with in Section One.
It is Section Two, which deals with developments specifically in the Colchester borough, which has come back from the planning inspectorate and is due for a vote on adoption.
What is in the Colchester local plan?
The Colchester local plan sets out proposals for 15,970 houses between 2017-2033.
According to the draft plan, the local authority has a housing target of 920 homes a year, or a minimum of 14,720 homes over the local plan period.
Since the period started five years ago, 4,075 of the required homes have already been built.
Additionally, developments which have been given planning permission for between 2021-2033 but have not yet been built also contribute to the housing numbers.
According to the draft plan, these amount to 6,155 homes.
This leaves 5,740 new allocations which are set out in the plan. The bulk of these, 2,201 houses, are planned for the Colchester Urban Area, but there are some smaller developments planned for rural parts of the borough.
These include 120 homes allocated in Copford and Copford Green and 200 allocated in West Mersea.
Notable areas which have been allocated for development in the plan include Middlewick Ranges, a rare piece of acid grassland currently owned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.
The local plan has allocated 1,000 houses to be built here, a move which has been controversial among residents and campaigners worried about the destruction of green spaces and biodiversity as a result of development.
The ABRO site in Colchester town centre has also been allocated for development, a former army barracks which intersects with the remains of the UK’s only known Roman Circus.
Although the number of houses is left unspecified, 3.8 Hectares in the disused barracks would become a residential development according to the plan, with the area containing the Roman Circus left as open space.
Developments for employment space, such as offices, industrial buildings and shops, are also allocated in the plan, with it pledging to build on 32 Hectares across the borough for these uses by 2033.
Essex County Council is the planning authority responsible for transport, however Colchester’s plan would still require developers to make contributions to local transport, such as bus routes and highway works.
Other important policies set out in the plan include 10 per cent biodiversity net gain and 30 per cent affordable housing requirements.
These require developers to provide a net gain in biodiversity to make up for that lost as a result of the building works, and for at least 30 per cent of each development to be classed as affordable housing.
What does the council have to do next?
Colchester Borough Council’s local plan committee will scrutinise the draft plan at a meeting on Monday June 13.
They will then vote on whether to recommend the plan to the full council for formal adoption.
The full council will then debate and vote on adopting the plan at a later meeting.
According to a council report, the council cannot make any changes to the plan now it has been approved by the planning inspectorate.
As a result, the only other option the council has besides adopting the plan is withdrawing it and starting again.
According to the council’s website, the next meeting of the full council is scheduled for Thursday June 23.