Colchester City Council Preferred Options Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation 2025

This policy should not be be limited to just greenfield or major (definition?) sites but should be a set of principles applied to all residential development, or insert a separate policy for urban/high density sites. Consideration should be given for any larger site that is likley to be phased, ie. over 50 new homes, to the need for a masterplan to inform any planning application and Design Codes, especially for Strategic Sites and the Marks Tey Growth Area.
There is no reference to local character or distinctiveness and this is especially important when considering extensions to Small and Medium Settlements

Aldham Parish Council is concerned the allocation of some 3500 new homes in the seven parishes west of Colchester will represent a potential doubling in the population of this mainly rural area over 15 years. The decisions to allocate sites across this area appears to have been arbitrary and have been made without assessment of the cumulative impact on the communities and social infrastructure of these villages, including schools and access to GPs. Furthermore, this cumulative impact will have real effect on the principal traffic routes - A12, A120 and A1124 as well as numerous smaller rural roads that are used extensively as short cuts to avoid congestion and are in reality now part of the highway network, despite their inadequacy. This assessment of cumulative impact also needs to take into account emerging proposals for development on the east side of Braintree District which will further compound the problems. The City Council need to engage with our communities to reassure them that the level of development proposed can be adequately mitigated by ensuring the emerging Plan is strengthened and improved before a Reg.19 Draft is published.

Aldham Parish Council is concerned the allocation of some 3500 new homes in the seven parishes west of Colchester will represent a potential doubling in the population of this mainly rural area over 15 years. The decisions to allocate sites across this area appears to have been arbitrary and have been made without assessment of the cumulative impact on the communities and social infrastructure of these villages, including schools and access to GPs. Furthermore, this cumulative impact will have real effect on the principal traffic routes - A12, A120 and A1124 as well as numerous smaller rural roads that are used extensively as short cuts to avoid congestion and are in reality now part of the highway network, despite their inadequacy. This assessment of cumulative impact also needs to take into account emerging proposals for development on the east side of Braintree District which will further compound the problems. The City Council need to engage with our communities to reassure them that level of development proposed can be adequately mitigated by ensuring the emerging Plan is strengthened and improved before a Reg.19 Draft is published.

Aldham Parish Council is concerned the allocation of some 3500 new homes in the seven parishes west of Colchester will represent a potential doubling in the population of this mainly rural area over 15 years. The decisions to allocate sites across this area appears to have been arbitrary and have been made without assessment of the cumulative impact on the communities and social infrastructure of these villages, including schools and access to GPs. Furthermore, this cumulative impact will have real effect on the principal traffic routes - A12, A120 and A1124 as well as numerous smaller rural roads that are used extensively as short cuts to avoid congestion and are in reality now part of the highway network, despite their inadequacy. This assessment of cumulative impact also needs to take into account emerging proposals for development on the east side of Braintree District which will further compound the problems. The City Council need to engage with our communities to reassure them that level of development proposed can be adequately mitigated by ensuring the emerging Plan is strengthened and improved before a Reg.19 Draft is published.

Aldham Parish Council is concerned the allocation of some 3500 new homes in the seven parishes west of Colchester will represent a potential doubling in the population of this mainly rural area over 15 years. The decisions to allocate sites across this area appears to have been arbitrary and have been made without assessment of the cumulative impact on the communities and social infrastructure of these villages, including schools and access to GPs. Furthermore, this cumulative impact will have real effect on the principal traffic routes - A12, A120 and A1124 as well as numerous smaller rural roads that are used extensively as short cuts to avoid congestion and are in reality now part of the highway network, despite their inadequacy. This assessment of cumulative impact also needs to take into account emerging proposals for development on the east side of Braintree District which will further compound the problems. The City Council need to engage with our communities to reassure them that level of development proposed can be adequately mitigated by ensuring the emerging Plan is strengthened and improved before a Reg.19 Draft is published.

Aldham Parish Council objects to the scale of the allocation on this site which is more than double that shown on the original Call for Sites (ID10535) and is clearly capable of accommodating more than 15 new homes referred to in Policy PP45. The allocation should be reduced in size to reflect the Call for Sites assessment or the policy amended to make it clear that development is limited to no more 15 new homes and that 50% of the site will be left as POS.

Aldham Parish Council is concerned the allocation of some 3500 new homes in the seven parishes west of Colchester will represent a potential doubling in the population of this mainly rural area over 15 years. The decisions to allocate sites across this area appears to have been arbitrary and have been made without assessment of the cumulative impact on the communities and social infrastructure of these villages, including schools and access to GPs. Furthermore, this cumulative impact will have real effect on the principal traffic routes - A12, A120 and A1124 as well as numerous smaller rural roads that are used extensively as short cuts to avoid congestion and are in reality now part of the highway network, despite their inadequacy. This assessment of cumulative impact also needs to take into account emerging proposals for development on the east side of Braintree District which will further compound the problems. The City Council need to engage with our communities to reassure them that level of development proposed can be adequately mitigated by ensuring the emerging Plan is strengthened and improved before a Reg.19 Draft is published.

The policy should include specific density targets for those sites close to sustainable transport options and facilities to assist meeting modal shift targets and to minimise the amount of allocated land required. Elsewhere, and particularly on greenfield sites close to adjoining Small and Medium Settlements, densities should reflect the existing form and character of the settlement.

The Parish Council strongly objects to the allocation of this site for 250 new homes within the Parish of Aldham. The extension of Eight Ash Green along the north side of Halstead Road as proposed would create a form of ribbon development that would stretch 1.27 miles along the northside of the A1124, almost coalescing with the outlying parts of the much smaller village of Aldham and doubling the number of houses in the Parish. The development of the site would create a separate community with the recent new housing adjoining at Aspen Walk that would be remote from the centre of the village, creating an imbalance to the built form of Eight Ash Green.

The development of this site for 250 homes, overlooking the Colne Valley to the north, would create an intrusive urban form into views across, into and out of this important local landscape feature, including from PRoW and the village of Fordham on the other side of the valley. The Landscape Impact Analysis submitted with the current application recognises this impact as ‘Moderate’ across a distance of 850m but the mitigation is limited and the photographic evidence does not accurately convey the impact.

Fiddlers Wood, a Local Wildlife Site, adjoins the site along the northern boundary and the cumulative impact of development of the adjoining site has not been fully assessed in making this allocation and would mean that this Ancient Woodland would become almost surrounded by housing and liable to degradation from over use of PRoW through the wood by dog walking and an increased prevalence of domestic cats.

The allocation fails to include and assess the impact of the other sites along the A1124 that are proposed , namely 180 dwellings on land elsewhere in Eight Ash Green and 235 at Chappel & Wakes Colne. It is anticipated allocations at Earls Colne and Halstead in the emerging Braintree Local Plan will also add to the impact. Furthermore, given congestion on the A120 at Marks Tey the proposed allocation of 125 dwellings at Gt Tey will impact on the A1124 and the village of Aldham as drivers seek to avoid using the A120 to access Colchester. No further development in the villages west of Colchester should be granted until the cumulative impact of the 3600 new dwellings proposed in the Preferred Options have been adequately assessed and a plan for mitigation agreed.

Bus services along the A1124 are inadequate and the distance of the site from any facilities in the village will simply encourage a car dependent development contrary to national and local policies. The level of traffic and narrow carriageway through parts of Eight Ash Green make walking and cycling unattractive on the A1124 and the distance from the western end of the site to the primary school will only encourage car journeys. The Parish Council is aware that Eight Ash Green Parish Council also objects to this allocation and considers there are sites better located in the village that should be allocated in place of this site. Aldham Parish Council supports this initiative and shares the belief there is a better alternative on land to the south of Halstead Road, which could deliver similar numbers. Concerns that alternative sites on the south side of Halstead Road would be unsafe are overstated. A roundabout junction to allow access to the south at the junction of the A1124 at John Flower Way could easily be combined with a safe crossing in what will become an urbanised part of the village.

Aldham Parish Council is concerned the allocation of some 3500 new homes in the seven parishes west of Colchester will represent a potential doubling in the population of this mainly rural area over 15 years. The decisions to allocate sites across this area appears to have been arbitrary and have been made without assessment of the cumulative impact on the communities and social infrastructure of these villages, including schools and access to GPs. Furthermore, this cumulative impact will have real effect on the principal traffic routes - A12, A120 and A1124 as well as numerous smaller rural roads that are used extensively as short cuts to avoid congestion and are in reality now part of the highway network, despite their inadequacy. This assessment of cumulative impact also needs to take into account emerging proposals for development on the east side of Braintree District which will further compound the problems. The City Council need to engage with our communities to reassure them that the level of development proposed can be adequately mitigated by ensuring the emerging Plan is strengthened and improved before a Reg.19 Draft is published.