A number of queries have been received about an item on both the "Cause4LivingEssex" (The Campaign Against Urbn Scrawl in Essex) and on Facebook. This concerns a proposal for development between Pattiswick and Coggeshall.
The Parish Council has looked into this and tried to obtain as much background information as possible in order to inform residents. Until the Parish Council was alerted to this document, it had no knowledge of any proposals.
The proposer, Lightwood Planning undertakes development projects from housing needs surveys, site identification, assessment and evaluation against local plan policy and contacting landowners with a proposition. This would appear to be the stage this one has reached.
From the Monks Wood proposal, it appears they have been in discussion with Braintree and Colchester Councils (who have already stated they will be working together on Local Plans and bringing them to fruition), as well as ECC.
Further, they state that Braintree District Council are fully aware of the availability of the site but were unable to include it in the current Draft Local Plan study as it had already been commissioned and they were unable to extend the scope.
This site is one of fifty to have come forward in response to the consultation during the Summer so at this stage is somewhat speculative.
This document gives the impression that discussions are already underway with local Councils,but BDC will have to assess it against the same criteria used in the assessment of other garden communities e.g. West Braintree and West Tey, and there will have to be a Sustainability Appraisal. BDC’s Local Plan Committee will probably consider it in the coming months once the proposal has been scrutinised by officers and there will be further consultation in February /March next year and it may feature in that.
The Planning Policy team at BDC have been contacted to ensure that Bradwell with Pattiswick Parish Council is included in the consultation process and kept appraised of any movement on this proposal. I have been assured that whilst the promoter (Lightfoot) may have some initial discussion with local authorities, they are assuming a great deal at this stage and their document is formed around those assumptions.
As any updates are received, these will be included on this website.