East of England Development: Update!

Micheal Heavens, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman and Epping Forest District council executive member for housing, writes to update you on the current position of the East of England Development:

RPG/RSS 14, the development plan for the English region extending from the Thames Estuary to the Wash, is now to be named the East of England Plan. The overall proposal for the region to provide a total of 478,000 homes by 2021 is unchanged and John Prescott's request to find room for another 18,000 has been rejected for lack of evidence of need. Epping Forest number is down from 18,600 homes to 11,000 but the detail is confusing. It includes a speculative 6000 at North Weald and 2,700 as part of Harlow's growth to the south and west. It means that more development sites have to be found than those already identified. A recommendation for 40% affordable housing fits with the need for future generations of Epping Forest District families.

The good news is that there is a strong recommendation for most of Harlow's growth to be north of the River Stort (10,000) and east as far as the M11 (8,000). The Plan also favours a northern extension of A414 to a new junction with the M11 near Sheering.

The powerful arguments mounted by EFDC planning officers and members lead by Cllr Michael Heavens were confirmed by independent planning studies and accepted by the regional planning panel.

The Plan also calls for government to provide advance provision for infrastructure funding, particularly for all forms of public transport, roads and railways, and greater direct funding for affordable housing. A Lib Dem proposal to reduce the environmental impacts of growth, by improvements in building standards to reduce energy and water use, was accepted. The need for schools, health and community facilities, industry and commerce to be provided before and during the provision of homes is also recognised.

Michael Lib Dem, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson said, "I am pleased that, despite the continuous Tory criticism, we have negotiated successfully to persuade the regional planners that their original proposals for Epping Forest were wrong. The future of North Weald is still in the balance but we shall continue the argument for preserving the separation of existing towns and villages by limiting greenfield development to the absolute minimum in order to prevent the spread of London suburbia. We need decent attractive affordable homes for our young people but we also need the open and wooded green space that adds to the quality of life."

In Late December, the East of England Regional Assembly suspended approval of the Plan until Government makes a realistic commitment to provide the necessary infrastructure funding to support the Lib Dems. Lib Dems supported this