Judge refuses permission for judicial review on plans for thousands of homes on Harlow’s border
News / Fri 19th Sep 2025 at 05:18am
ON THURSDAY, Justice Lang refused permission for a judicial review of the planning approval for the Gilston area of Harlow and Gilston Garden Town.
Councillor Vicky Glover-Ward, Executive Member for Planning and Growth, said:
“We welcome the judge’s decision today to uphold the original ruling and reject the grounds for a legal challenge.
“The council, together with its Harlow and Gilston Garden Town partners, has worked diligently over many years to bring these plans to the point of approval, and we are pleased that the court recognised this today.
“We hope this decision draws a line under a process that only delays the delivery of much-needed new housing, including 2,300 homes for people currently struggling to get onto the property ladder. “
For background, see below.
Seamus
2025-09-19 06:14:56
The trouble is, they are not bringing new infrastructure, jobs, leisure and community services such as health care as we saw with Gilden Park. At the very first opportunity the developer will slash the amount of social housing, will try and forget facilities as though they never knew they agreed to them and have to have a 106 order enforced to build community services and even then take years to build them and the only people benefitting is the developers and those in councils who aided the developers. 10,000 new homes and the nearest schools and hospital is Harlow. Unless those 10,000 homes occupants all have jobs north of Harlow then an awfull lot of cars will be swelling the already poor road infrastructure in Harlow. This whole build baby build by Labour has turned the countryside into the wild wild west with residents helplessly watching on.
David Forman
2025-09-19 07:54:16
And many of the homes in the initial stage will be bought off-plan by foreign investors and others through buy to let mortgages. Young couples from Harlow won't be able to afford these homes and the number of allegedly affordable homes will be pitifully small. As Seamus says the community facilities will be bypassed by developers using viability assessments. The National Planning Policy Framework hasn't been amended in any meaningful way by Starmer and Rayner and their desire to reduce planning objections, especially in the Green Belt, undermines public trust. Not what I hoped for.
Darren
2025-09-19 07:54:43
People bang on about littering and how bad it is for the environment and it's wildlife. Is not burying swathes of land under bricks, concrete and tarmac any better ?
DAVID
2025-09-19 09:25:00
Naisha Polaine left before a single house was built – So what are we left with after all the CGIs and promises? – A huge swathe of our countryside heritage with permission to build thousands of houses. Harlow and Gilston Garden Town is rudderless and the developers have been given carte blache to back out of every agreement they’ve made and cram in as many units as they can onto their private roads. This doesn’t belong to us – It belongs to the big housebuilders and their overseas owners.
Cheb
2025-09-19 11:54:01
Again fat cats lining their pockets!! What about our wonderful wild animals getting pushed out of their land again for greed,,,,??? Leave their land alone they was here before humans !!!
Al gafar
2025-09-19 12:20:16
It would seem that nobody.cosiders the already overburdened infrastructure. Sewage disposal electrical supply. Water supply and indeed the absolute chronic traffic problems ,not withstanding this week will have the constant rumbling of contractors vehicles ,mud on the road ! I expect most of the homes that will be built will be for sale and not for social housing. Perhaps the cross town tram system will work to get people out of their cars . That lovey warm environment int the car ,crow bars won't get them out.of their cars .
Ajd
2025-09-19 13:29:33
People are forgetting about the hospital which is way to small already..The new hospital keeps being pushed back.
Carol May
2025-09-19 15:30:13
The plan is for 26,000 houses!!! That's another town! With no town centre, shops, cafés etc. The water board has been saying for decades that there is insufficient water and sewerage provision! The farmers have been evicted! That's 2,500 acres of food growing land down the toilet & young farmers like my son being made homeless! Gilston Garden Town is NOT part of Harlow! It's in Hertfordshire!!!! The promised 30% of social and low cost housing has dropped to just 3%!!!! Because Places for People have sold off areas to national house builders like Wimpey! Harlow hospital cannot cope NOW! These corporates care nothing about any facilities! Near Cambridge, there is massive, soulless house building with no facilities at all! Look at Stortford Fields (a mere 5,000 houses) where the area for a GP surgery now has houses on it because it makes more profit!!!! And then there's the question of traffic..... No lessons are being learned from other areas of the country!!!!! This once lovely area is going to be completely destroyed!! By people who don't live here & don't care!!!!!
Paul
2025-09-19 18:59:46
What more can be added? Wonderful countryside being wasted under concrete, when it should be for producing crops. Congestion, traffic, health care, schools and increasing social disorder will be disastrous on Harlow. Planning permission is the oldest trick going, miminum social care housing, people out of work or on minimum pay. The ghettos of America started that way then in came drug dealing, crime and alcoholism. No one will take pride in their homes, washing machines, bed mattresses and old cars as can be seen on the streets in all neglected towns across the country. No increase in police. A remedy for social disorder.
Flintstone
2025-09-19 20:47:05
We have the flats by the town station almost empty and that was supposed to be for some people on the housing list and it's still empty Money talks not people well being or health with more cars and traffic, sorry I forgot they are building a nice footpath from the station to the town to get cars of the road and for a few people who walk and the odd cyclists instead of widening the road to cater for more traffic Keep going Dan until the election
Marie
2025-09-20 00:43:24
We simply do not have the infrastructure or services to cope. At the end of the day its not about the environment nor is it about affordable housing. It's about money!! 🤝🏼
Jim Crowley
2025-09-20 20:34:52
I'm so happy with the Judge's decision. What else can we add? For the last ten years, Harlow's been growing up in homes and reducing industrial areas. Fewer jobs, less income, but who really cares? The hospital was the number one project for the whole county of Essex. It would be fitted perfectly in the designed area. If we thought about removing crops and building something reliable, then a new Essex County Hospital would look much better in that area. And the area where Alexandra Hospital is today could be used for a new housing area. Yeah, like everyone's saying, the traffic in Harlow is still a nightmare. With all the cars, they really need to fix the main roads, such as A414 in Hertford, and make them four lanes, two going each way. This plan should be applied to all avenues in Harlow. The roundabout at Velizy Avenue / First Avenue is the most ridiculous paradox. Adding a pedestrian crossing in that busy area will cause chaos and delays we've never seen before.
Will Jones
2025-09-21 20:36:23
Re: Carol May re: "Look at Stortford Fields (a mere 5,000 houses) where the area for a GP surgery now has houses on it because it makes more profit!!!!". Not sure about that. It hasn't been built yet - unless you know something about future plans?
G.R. James
2025-09-22 17:52:17
Judges , Planning Inspectors and Councils should not decide these issues. Too much damage has been done already in the interests of the few if not the corrupt. A local referendum is how planning should be decided. The wishes of local people are always ignored so developers can make money.There is no democracy and people do not matter.
Michelle S
2025-09-23 11:00:25
The developers can now actually claim that it's a village on the edge of Harlow.
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