Planning: Have your say on the hundreds of homes on Harlow’s border
News / Mon 31st Oct 2022 at 09:26am
CONSULTATION on the proposed further changes (known as ‘further main modifications’) to Epping Forest District’s emerging Local Plan starts on Friday 28 October. The consultation will run for 6 weeks closing on 9 December, with all responses going to the government-appointed inspector that is examining the plan.
Details of the consultation will be available on the Local Plan website, including the schedule of proposed modifications, supporting documents and an online response form. Paper copies will also be available from the Civic Offices in Epping and libraries across the district.
6 weeks to have your say
Epping Forest District Council’s cabinet portfolio holder responsible for planning policy, Councillor Nigel Bedford said:
We need to be clear that the consultation relates solely to the further main modifications to the emerging plan, which have not been consulted upon before. The planning inspector will not consider responses on parts of the plan that are not subject to further change.
The further main modifications include limited changes to some of the supporting text and policies within the plan and changes to reflect updated housing supply data to March 2022. The overall housing requirement of 11,400 new homes across the plan period 2011 to 2033 remains the same.
I am encouraging everyone with an interest in planning, and particularly those that have followed the plan’s examination, to take a look at the consultation. You have 6 weeks to have your say. Please confine your responses to the further changes which are clearly indicated.
The Council will publish all the responses online and collate for the inspector’s review. This has been a long and rigorous process but I am very optimistic. The end of the process is in sight and the formal adoption of the Local Plan is only a short time away.
What is the Local Plan?
The Local Plan is a district-wide plan which identifies the vision and aspirations for the future of the area. The planning policies, and allocations in the plan identify sites or areas which can be developed and those which should be protected.
- The Local Plan will help shape future development in the district up to 2033. It sets out the level and distribution of planned growth, including new homes and employment land
- The Plan includes policies which will be used to assess planning applications, ensuring new development is sustainable, well designed and provides for the future needs of the district
- Once finalised and adopted, the Local Plan will become the statutory (legal) development plan for the Epping Forest district
What happens to the consultation responses?
Responses to the consultation will be sent to the independent government-appointed inspector. Once the inspector has considered the responses, including the evidence presented throughout the duration of the examination, he will determine whether the Local Plan is ‘sound’ and make his final recommendations to the Secretary of State. Only once the plan has received ministerial approval can it then be adopted by the Council.
Personal information such as contact details and addresses will be removed from consultation responses before they are published for everyone to read on the Council’s Local Plan website.
Kim Oconnor
2022-10-31 10:05:26
It's destruction to the Environment. It's destruction of old trees. It's destruction of habitat s. And of ecco systems. We had over 6,000 signatures against the destruction of the river stort, and would of been more, still people don't know what's going to happen to this valley. We had consultation s. TO NO AVAIL. You want our opinion s, because it makes you all look good. But we the public are not listened to. You all talk about mental health, while taking the things that makes us better. People don't want there peaceful places removed, they don't want to the lands covered in concrete. BUT YOU WILL GO A HEAD ANY WAY, BECAUSE ITS ALL LINNING YOUR POCKET S. Theses houses and rabbit hutches, are unaffordable to most in Harlow. You can paint a rosy picture of this, you can dress it up as much as you like. It's still vandalism it's still destruction. But you don't want to hear it.
Cheesed off
2022-10-31 11:17:13
So Hertfordshire council loading Harlow up with people on one side of the town and now Epping loading them up from the other side, both councils getting the money and council tax from these housing estates yet they will use Harlow facilities, doctors and schools and leave Harlow with extra costs.
Nostradamus
2022-10-31 12:39:04
Just build the Southern by pass link road from j7 to Edinburgh Way and cut these developments off. Epping and East Herts Councils are just dumping on Harlow. Harlow Council should move to incorporate these areas at Gilston and Latton into Harlow to ensure that if these developments progress under our control and that Harlow benefits from the Government grants and taxes that will otherwise go to East Herts and Epping Councils.
Theman
2022-10-31 14:32:13
I predict a riot. Lots of homes no new infrastructure. What could possibly go wrong!
Mike
2022-10-31 16:29:58
it seems to me kim o'connor has a opinion on everything,ive seen you post lots of negative stuff but nothin postive about harlow, wernt you the person who moaned her son couldnt get a council property, if you havent got anything postive to say i suggest you keep quiet.
Charlie
2022-10-31 17:49:10
What is the point in making a comment about it? The decision has already been made long ago, and like the Position of the J7A on the M11 and the Gilston Garden Town Development, the so called consultation is just a Public relations exercise, so that the planners can say, oh, you were consulted about it. Total Bull the lot of it. And unless the (Promised) new Hospital is up and running, the PAH is in for a torrid time if these developments go ahead before we get the new hospital. As for the increase in traffic, it just does not bear thinking about. But keep on Building Building Building, and the planners will soon get their wish of a concrete jungle all the way from London through to Cambridge and beyond.
Kim Oconnor
2022-10-31 18:52:34
Exactly Charlie. Wasn't me Mike. My son has a place. We are all allowed to view our opions.
Nostradamus
2022-11-01 10:38:26
Kim keep going, always on the button, presumably Mike in an incomer and doesn't know about how Harlow was over the first 40 years when it was at the forefront of positive social development, he doesn't have the perspective to see the serious decline. Also he presumably doesn't see why Harlow is 20th in the league tables for one of the towns for the worst stats on disadvantaged populations in England with 5000 on waiting list for housing nor does he know of the ecological damage to the Stort Valley, the congestion and increased risks of sewage discharges and flooding in Harlow that'll be caused by the building of the raised road called the Eastern Crossing.
James
2022-11-01 10:53:01
If one checks the background, this development is part of the Harlow Gilston Garden Town project (HGGT) signed up to by the former Harlow Labour administration and fully confirmed in their Local Development Plan of December 2020.
Nicholas Taylor
2022-11-01 12:04:36
James, your comment tells half the story. You are right, Labour when in power did indeed bring Harlow Council in to the HGGT project. However the Conservatives did not make any objection to the EFDC Local Development Plan when the examination hearings took place in 2019 or indeed any representation to the Planning Inspector when it really mattered. The half hearted attempt to do so more recently was never going to be taken notice of.
James
2022-11-01 13:22:21
The only practical solution is to bring the entire HGGT project under a single authority. The current situation involving three district councils (Harlow, East Herts and Epping Forest) and two county councils (Essex and Hertfordshire) is too cumbersome. Might be a precursor to a more rational and efficient structure of a single unitary authority, which could overcome cross county governance issues.
Mr Grumpy
2022-11-01 15:47:38
Harlow, the next London borough.
rasp
2022-12-02 11:30:25
No more homes until we get a hospital that can cope.
13 Comments for Planning: Have your say on the hundreds of homes on Harlow’s border: