A FORMER independent candidate has said there needs to be an alternative vision for Colchester’s controversial local plan.

Christopher Hill, who stood as an independent candidate for Greenstead in the Colchester Council elections last year, has joined other campaign groups to call for a re-evaluation.

He said there were concerns with the local plan as a whole, but there were particular issues over the three proposed garden communities.

A petition has been set up and already has 398 signatures out of a target of 500.

It is being distributed with the help of the Campaign Against Urban Sprawl in Essex and Hands Off Wivenhoe.

The groups say the plans for garden communities are “financially unsound, demonstrating poor positioning of new development, and are failing to address the massive impact on rural and coastal communities”.

The petition said: “We call on our North Essex councils to re-evaluate the local plan and the process which created it and to listen more carefully to our community’s response to the consultations.

“We call for candidates in the May local elections who are independently-minded, and who are willing to stand up against the current vision, and who will champion a community-led rather than centrally imposed plan.”

Mr Hill said: “There is not an independent or alternative voice. We need people to be standing against this as there is no talk of a different vision.

“There were no options, it was just: ‘This is what we are going to do.’” Mike Clark, who was the independent candidate in Shrub End by-election last year is also behind the petition.

A spokesman for Colchester, Tendring and Essex councils said: “The draft local plans, including the ambitious proposals for the North Essex Garden Communities, have been the subject of a recent rigorous planning inspectorate examination covering a wide range of issues, including the concerns raised in the petition.

“We are currently awaiting the planning inspector’s recommendation. We take the views of residents very seriously which is why the draft local plans were subject to extensive public consultations.”