Redevelopment of St-John's Road

Many Epping residents will know about the county council's plan to relocate Epping Junior School to a new combined Infant and Junior school in Coronation Hill. The former Youth and Adult Centre, temporarily used by Epping Infant School, will also be vacant. This will result in a large county owned site becoming available for redevelopment and Epping Forest District Council has announced it is looking at the future of the adjacent Epping Depot. In addition the county council owns the derelict garages behind the library and St John's Church is planning to redevelop part of its property.

This means big changes in the centre of Epping. The county council is keen to raise as much money as possible from selling off surplus land and will want to sell for residential development, despite the fact that the school and Youth and Adult Centre are community buildings. Epping cannot afford more piecemeal and uncoordinated development, leading to the loss of important community facilities and unsustainable pressure on local infrastructure.

At the last council meeting Cllr Jon Whitehouse and I persuaded the district council to approve the preparation of a Development Brief. This should set out the community's aspirations for the area and place limits on what developers can do. We are now waiting for a detailed report to be submitted to the council's decision-making Cabinet.

When this St John's Road site is redeveloped it is important that community facilities are included. The council could consider providing better facilities for local community organisations and young people in Epping, or even relocating Epping Sports Centre.

It is essential that residents are aware of the potential for change and vital that the future of these important sites is properly debated and planned for. I hope local people will let their councillors know what they think.