Tiptree Neighbourhood Plan
Foreword
It is with great pleasure that we present to you this Neighbourhood Plan for Tiptree. It has been possible thanks to the involvement of hundreds of individuals and an army of volunteers. From those who contributed through the community questionnaire or public engagement exhibitions, the volunteers who spent hours of their time throughout 2017 compiling and analysing the data to those who have assessed sites or helped write the plan itself; this has truly been a community endeavour. The result is a Neighbourhood Plan that reflects the expressed wishes of the majority of people who live or work in Tiptree.
Though the prospect of new development may not always be popular and may bring many challenges; it also has the potential to bring the new life that is needed to maintain a vibrant and dynamic community. Well planned development brings benefits such as improvements in roads, services and amenities. Unfortunately this has not always been achieved in Tiptree. This is because new development has, in the past, been imposed on Tiptree without the protection of a Neighbourhood Plan and consequently the village has been left with a lack of infrastructure and poor road layouts.
Through the Neighbourhood Planning process the Government has given local communities genuine opportunities to influence the future of the places where they live. It allows communities to determine where new houses, businesses and shops should go. It gives us a say in what types of housing we want to see and what our houses and estates should look like.
As part of the government's commitment to build housing, Colchester Borough is required to build 15,000 homes by 2033. Tiptree's share of this allocation is 600. Whilst we cannot halt this development, the Neighbourhood Plan will allow us to take control over the next 15 years, to influence where development takes place, the type and quality of that development and to ensure that the change it brings meets local objectives.
This Neighbourhood Plan provides for the construction of 600 new dwellings in a manner that will accommodate the needs of future residents and also enhance the community infrastructure to maintain a vibrant community. The estates will be sympathetically planned as befits a rural location and, in line with the assessed needs, will include a higher proportion of 1 and 2 bedroom dwellings. The estates will come with community open space, a play area and a games area. There will be green 'buffer areas' to shield existing development from the new and there will be key link roads to enhance traffic flow. Where a road cannot be completed in the current planning round, wherever possible, the route will be safeguarded to future-proof Tiptree. Furthermore there is the creation of a new business area and the potential to improve the services offered in the village centre, including the possibility of a new, bigger, health centre.
If we fail to produce a Neighbourhood Plan that is acceptable to the community, to Colchester Borough and to the independent examiner, we will lose control of development and will be forced to accept inappropriate development pressure. Instead of shaping development we will be living in reaction to it. Of course we would all like Tiptree to continue to be a great place to live, not only for us but for future generations and that is why your involvement in this process is so important.
Foreword to the Regulation 16 Edition
Tiptree Neighbourhood Plan went to the Regulation 14, six-week public consultation from 8th June to 21st July 2019. During that period there were three Neighbourhood Plan exhibitions attended by some 400 people; copies of the plan were widely available and ultimately over 300 responses were received. These responses have been carefully analysed and reveal strong support for the proposed plan with between 78 and 87 percent of respondents choosing 'agree' or 'mostly agree' for each of the sixteen policies. Overall, of those voting, 86 percent of respondents said they would be inclined to support the plan at referendum. In addition over 1000 comments have been carefully considered and the plan has been adjusted in the light of these. The result is the plan before you. It is substantially the same as the Consultation Edition but the wording of many of the policies has been adjusted for the sake of clarity and precision. In this respect, under planning law, there are some things that a Neighbourhood Plan may require of developers and other things that can only be supported or encouraged. Nevertheless these aspirations are included within the policies to maximise the likelihood of their delivery. In summary, we believe that this plan represents the wishes of the majority of the community and will result in sustainable development that will benefit the life of the village into the foreseeable future. We hope it will find your support.
Tiptree's Tower Mill was built in 1775 and replaced a Post Mill which stood on the opposite side of Church Road in the grounds of Milldene.