Village of Bulmer in Essex

Next week marks the start of our Local Plan Sub-Committee meetings, where councillors will consider policies and specific town and village sites put forward by landowners to the council for consideration in the updated Local Plan.

Local sites will be looked at by members of the committee through May and June and the strategic and larger sites, which would be able to provide over 500 homes, will be considered in September.

How many sites were submitted?

Over 300 sites have been submitted for consideration in the Local Plan so far that could deliver over 100,000 new homes across the district, with extensive modelling and assessment on their suitability carried out.

Just because a site is promoted for development, this does not automatically mean that it will go forward as an allocation in the Local Plan or be supported for development of the proposed use.

Around 22 sites of these are planned to be recommended to councillors as suitable for allocation as a development site, and it will be for the councillors who make up the committee to decide whether they are recommended to include in the draft Local Plan or not.

What is the district's housing target?

The Government’s mandatory housing target means the council must allocate land to deliver 1,115 new homes a year for the district.

Whilst the district’s housing target is tougher, we won’t need to allocate all sites submitted to us to meet this target, however we must look to achieve it otherwise we run the risk of decision-making being taken away locally and having less say over where development goes.

We know we need more housing, with more people moving to the area and people living longer, however what is important is that we have the necessary infrastructure and services to support that housing growth and the council will do all it can through the Local Plan review process and what it can influence at a district council level to facilitate this for communities.