Colchester City Council Preferred Options Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation 2025

Whilst the Preferred Options Local Plan makes provision for two housing sites in Layer de la Haye, policies PP39 and PP40, for a total of 70 dwellings, the sites are not particularly sustainable in their location, on the east side of the settlement, away for the village services. The two sites proposed are in The Folley and neighbour a site on which the Council refused a planning permission in 2020, stating the site was isolated and remote from services. This decision was subsequently upheld at appeal, where an Inspector further determined that development in this location would have a significantly harmful effect on the character and appearance of the area. Therefore, it is suspiring that the sites allocated under PP39 and PP40 were chosen from the Call for Sites.

Layer de la Haye is identified in the Plan’s Spatial Strategy as medium settlement, reflecting its good range of services, which has a mix of community and social infrastructure, including a primary school, GP surgery, shop, two pubs, village hall, tennis courts and public open spaces. The respondent’s site on Malting Green Road is an easy walk to the village shop (250m) one of the settlement’s two Pubs (320m), the Village School, Public Open Space (420m), GP surgery (220m) and to Bus Stops with regular services, which are just 50m or 300m away, all via existing lit roadside footways.

The respondent’s site at Malting Green Road, is identified in the plans uploaded with these representations, and it extends to 1.0 hectare, part of which falls within the existing Settlement Boundary.

Paragraph 73 of the December 2024 NPPF advises that :

Small and medium sized sites can make an important contribution to meeting the housing requirement of an area, are essential for Small and Medium Enterprise housebuilders to deliver new homes, and are often built-out relatively quickly. To promote the development of a good mix of sites local planning authorities
should:

a) identify, through the development plan and brownfield registers, land to accommodate at least 10% of their housing requirement on sites no larger than one hectare; unless it can be shown, through the preparation of relevant plan policies, that there are strong reasons why this 10% target cannot be achieved;

b) seek opportunities, through policies and decisions, to support small sites to come forward for community-led development for housing and self-build and custom build housing;

c) use tools such as area-wide design assessments, permission in principle and Local Development Orders to help bring small and medium sized sites forward;

d) support the development of windfall sites through their policies and decisions – giving great weight to the benefits of using suitable sites within existing settlements for homes; and

e) work with developers to encourage the sub-division of large sites where this could help to speed up the delivery of homes.

Sub paragraph a) of para 73 of the Framework makes it clear that LPA should identify, through the development plan land to accommodate at least 10% of their housing requirement on sites no larger than one hectare; unless it can be shown, through the preparation of relevant plan policies, that there are strong reasons why this 10% target cannot be achieved. The allocations in the Preferred Options make provision for 11,089 new homes, of which 229 homes in total are allocated on sites no larger than 1.0 hectares. This amounts to just 2.07% of the Council’s total housing requirement. Therefore, provision is someway short of the 10% provision required by the Framework. Having not made an appropriate provision for small sites, the LPA has also not justified why there are strong reasons not to have done so.

Allocation of the respondent’s site of one hectare would assist in meeting this requirement of national planning policy, the site is sustainably located and is promoted by a local, experienced developer that would deliver new homes in the short term, thereby boosting housing supply.

The location of the respondent’s site is partly within and adjoining the settlement boundary and the site itself, already has well established defensible landscaped boundaries, that would contain development on the site and prevent any landscape impacts. The location of the site relative to the existing settlement and photographs of the landscaped boundaries are illustrated in the submissions attached to these representations. The current use of the land is relatively low grade paddock land, which has a low biodiversity value. The site lies within Flood Zone One, so a low risk to flooding and the site has no heritage assets in close proximity. The respondent owns three existing properties on the site’s frontage with Malting Green Road, where one or more of the properties could be removed to provide access into the site and a new frontage development added to enhance the street scene. Therefore, vehicular access is deliverable from Malting Green Road, where policy compliant visibility splays are achievable, and pedestrian footways connect with the existing footpath network along the highway and with local public rights of way.

It is envisaged that the site could accommodate between 20 to 30 bungalows, a type of housing that is rarely delivered by the volume housebuilders on larger allocations, but is a house type in demand, by an ever growing elderly sector wishing to downsize. The advantages of single storey development on the site also extends to further minimising any impact of the development on the landscape, and eradicates any possibility of a loss of privacy to those dwellings which abut the site to the north.

The land has no technical or environmental limitations that might hamper its development it has access to all required utilities and can seamlessly expand the settlement without impact on amenity or the wider landscape. Development could take place early in the plan period and be completed within 12 to 18 months, by local developers, contractors and trades. Most of all, development of the site would support the vitality and viability of local services and would be entirely environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.