Following the release of our White Paper challenging Basildon Council’s excessively high housing target a number of replies have been received by the Billericay Action Group, mainly expressing their thanks and support. These have come from politicians of all parties. We are also aware of individual residents who have written to their local Basildon Councillor expressing their concerns and who have also received replies.
Formal responses have been received from our local MP, John Baron and from Councillor Dr. Richard Moore who wrote on behalf of all of the Billericay Borough Councillors.
We welcome John Baron’s response to our White Paper where he clearly confirms our view that the high number of 16,000 was chosen by Basildon Borough Council and not set by Central Government:
Formal responses have been received from our local MP, John Baron and from Councillor Dr. Richard Moore who wrote on behalf of all of the Billericay Borough Councillors.
We welcome John Baron’s response to our White Paper where he clearly confirms our view that the high number of 16,000 was chosen by Basildon Borough Council and not set by Central Government:
“The numbers … in the Local Plan are not Government driven targets. The Government has made it clear that it is up to local Councils to determine the need for housing in their local area and to act appropriately to fulfil it”. - John Baron
Mr Baron also states that any figure must be realistic in meeting the demands of local population growth. We note that he does not say we must also meet the needs of large scale migration; he refers only to local population growth.
Unfortunately he also repeats the assertion that there must be a Local Plan in place to prevent uncontrolled development in the Borough. This echoes the response from Basildon Council.
BAG has stated on many occasions that we fully understand the need for a Local Plan and repeat our view that a bad plan is as bad, if not worse than no plan.