Time to speak out over the future of Mile End (From Gazette)

Time to speak out over the future of Mile End

6:00pm Tuesday 5th July 2011 in News By James Calnan

Get involved - David Clouston, pictured on the site with wife, Catherine, says residents must express their views during the consultation

PEOPLE in Mile End have been urged to make their voices heard after it emerged plans for more than 2,200 homes in the area could be submitted within six months.

Residents and campaigners fear developer Mersea Homes will apply for outline planning permission for homes and community facilities on 247 acres of land off Nayland Road early next year.

Next week, Essex University workers will question Mile End residents on behalf of Colchester Council about the transport improvements and community facilities they think the area needs.

Their replies will help shape a planning document to be drawn up this September to help decide future development in the area.

Ahead of the consultation, Colchester Council leader and Myland councillor Anne Turrell has insisted the number of homes eventually built on the site would be rather fewer than the 2,200 proposed in the original core strategy document the council adopted last year.

She said a review of the strategy might be brought forward from December 2012 to January.

New council policies also meant there would no longer be room on the site for so many homes.

She added: “2,200 homes won’t go on there. There are things that we’ve had since the Core Strategy. We’ve changed our flats policy, our parking policy and our gardens policy.

“With far fewer flats, more space for parking and gardens, they are not going to get all that on there.

“The core strategy is not set in stone. When we have the review next year, we may be able to change some of the land use.”

However parish councillor David Clouston, who is also a member of the Love Myland campaign group, urged residents to take part in the consultation to make sure the area got the facilities it needed.

He said: “We believe the main focus now should be on getting the community infrastructure, including schools and green space. If it’s possible to get the number of homes reduced, we would, of course, welcome that.”

He added: “It is entirely possible for the housing allocation to be met without it all going in Mile End and Braiswick.

“There are lots of sites in Colchester that can take quite a bit of that housing allocation.”

No one from Mersea Homes was available to comment.