My letter in Friday's Colchester County Standard
Essex County Standard Friday 8 March 2024
So, Colchester City Council’s review of its local plan has led to the usual speculative submissions by developers of sites for possible housing. However, in practice the current planning law mean many will be rejected at an early stage.
What does present a very real threat to rural communities such as those on Mersea and the nearby villages of Peldon, Abberton, Langenhoe and Fingringhoe is the promise that Keir Starmer made to the Labour Party Conference last October. Sir Keir “promised” the next Labour government would “bulldoze through” the planning laws which currently prevent major housing developments being built.
Twenty percent of Mersea Island, Britain’s most easterly inhabited island, is already developed. So, simple message to both the Labour Party and local planners “Twenty Percent’s, Plenty Percent!”.
The same applies to other local villages - from the many conversations I’ve had with people in Abberton/Langenhoe over the last few weeks, not one person has said they want a huge expansion of the village to the south. But many expressed a strong desire to stop inappropriate development. At the moment, we have at least the possibility of doing that – but to “bulldoze through” the current planning laws and impose large developments on rural areas – would be to ride roughshod over local democracy.
I fully understand the need for local people to have houses – we have a housing crisis here on Mersea, with far too many local people unable to get on the housing ladder, including many who have lived on the island all their lives. However, building thousands more homes to the south of Colchester will not significantly lower house prices, not least because a significant proportion of them are sold to people from outside the local area.
More creative solutions are needed to solve that housing crisis than simply concreting over the countryside.
Dr Martin Parsons
West Mersea
So, Colchester City Council’s review of its local plan has led to the usual speculative submissions by developers of sites for possible housing. However, in practice the current planning law mean many will be rejected at an early stage.
What does present a very real threat to rural communities such as those on Mersea and the nearby villages of Peldon, Abberton, Langenhoe and Fingringhoe is the promise that Keir Starmer made to the Labour Party Conference last October. Sir Keir “promised” the next Labour government would “bulldoze through” the planning laws which currently prevent major housing developments being built.
Twenty percent of Mersea Island, Britain’s most easterly inhabited island, is already developed. So, simple message to both the Labour Party and local planners “Twenty Percent’s, Plenty Percent!”.
The same applies to other local villages - from the many conversations I’ve had with people in Abberton/Langenhoe over the last few weeks, not one person has said they want a huge expansion of the village to the south. But many expressed a strong desire to stop inappropriate development. At the moment, we have at least the possibility of doing that – but to “bulldoze through” the current planning laws and impose large developments on rural areas – would be to ride roughshod over local democracy.
I fully understand the need for local people to have houses – we have a housing crisis here on Mersea, with far too many local people unable to get on the housing ladder, including many who have lived on the island all their lives. However, building thousands more homes to the south of Colchester will not significantly lower house prices, not least because a significant proportion of them are sold to people from outside the local area.
More creative solutions are needed to solve that housing crisis than simply concreting over the countryside.
Dr Martin Parsons
West Mersea
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