Mersea Life September 2026

​Colchester City Council Notes
Dr Martin Parsons, Colchester City Councillor for Mersea and Pyefleet
September 2026
Hot off the press, as I write Colchester’s local plan committee has just approved putting the draft local plan out to the pre-submission consultation. This happens because some changes were made in response to the first consultation.
It was not an easy decision. Few councillors like the plan, which sets out how the council will allocate the 21,000+ new houses the government are legally requiring it to provide sites for to meet the government target of building 1.5 million houses before the next election.
To be clear, If the council doesn’t have a local plan, it is still legally required to meet the government housebuilding target. In fact, the government would increase it by a further 20%. What would happen is that the developers could apply to build even larger housing estates absolutely anywhere in the Colchester area. The government would then grant them planning permission until Colchester reached the government target+20%. And guess where one of the most attractive locations for developers would be – yes – that beautiful unspoilt island called Mersea.
In fact, at the end of March the government introduced yet another change to planning law, legally requiring local councils to “inform” the minister (Angela Rayner) if they are even likely to refuse planning permission for any development of 150+ houses, so she can take decision herself. Effectively this means local councils can no longer stop big housing developments – and only stop smaller ones if they have a local plan.
However, as a councillor on (and since July chairman) of the local plan committee I have been quietly working behind the scenes to mitigate some of the worst effects of all this, including
Getting a condition put on the proposed 300 houses at Dawes Lane saying planning permission cannot be given until the Mersea GP situation is resolved. In July the council adopted an Island policy, requiring planners to take account of the unique environment and challenges of Mersea, something I originally drafted and have pushed for since being elected in 2024. Getting a special designation (just approved!) for East and West Mersea, Salcott and part of Fingringhoe – requiring planners to recognise that as villages with a single access road in/out they would be difficult to evacuate, for example in the event of a wildfire. The local plan consultation runs until 13 October – the link where you can comment on the local sites is https://colchester.oc2.uk/document/83/5731#d5731