On Friday 6 December we attended a meeting arranged by Feria Urbanisation at which they provided feedback on the results of their work on behalf of the 4 developers of the south west Billericay sites being proposed in the submitted(*) Local Plan; Redrow Homes, Scott Properties, Taylor Wimpey and Gleeson Homes. This was a follow up to the workshop they held in July at which the BDRA/BAG, and other representative groups, participated.
For ease of reference we have attached a map showing the sites in question. This is a map based on the submitted Local Plan. It does not show the changes proposed by Feria.
For ease of reference we have attached a map showing the sites in question. This is a map based on the submitted Local Plan. It does not show the changes proposed by Feria.
Feria were keen to stress that they were not showing the final plans but a set of proposals which could be used to drive formal plans should the sites be approved as part of the Local Plan. They were unwilling to provide copies of the material presented as the 4 developers were concerned that they could be used to mislead. Read what you like into that!
Without Feria's documentation to help us, we will first try to explain in words what they are proposing;
Without Feria's documentation to help us, we will first try to explain in words what they are proposing;
- There is no relief road or any contiguous route running through all 4 sites as shown in the submitted Local Plan and as expected. In effect the sites would be accessed from the existing road infrastructure, specifically Mountnessing Road, London Road, Tye Common Road, Frithwood Lane and Laindon Road.
- Site H17A would be accessed from a new roundabout on London Road with potentially a second access point on Mountnessing Road, roughly opposite Bellevue Road. (NOTE - Whist Feria said that this may not necessarily be a vehicle access point that contradicts what Redrow themselves have suggested. At Redrow’s own event on 23 November we, and many others, raised our concerns about the safety of an unrestricted vehicular access at onto Mountnessing Road. In addition we have concerns about the viability of the roundabout, which would also be the access from H17B and C onto London Road, given that Redrow propose initially to provide only a simple access into their site and they are proposing that the roundabout be the subject of a separate Planning Application).
- Sites H17B and H17C would have an estate road running through them from Tye Common Road to the new roundabout on London Road, circumnavigating the cricket club.
- Site H17D will in effect be isolated from the other sites and have access from Laindon Road and Frithwood Lane. There would be no new road linking H17D to H17C across Tye Common Road.
- The cricket and tennis clubs would stay in their current location and form a ‘sporting village’ concept with the football ground. The housing that was due to go on the land currently occupied by the cricket and tennis clubs will now go further west and deeper into the Green Belt.
- The location for the proposed new primary schools is vague. It was originally due to go on site H17B but it might go on site H17C, depending on developer acceptance.
- A community hub, shops and health facilities could go in either H17B or H17C but again the actual location was vague. There would be no such facilities in site H17D which is the furthest from any facilities. No facilities are proposed for site H17A as it’s deemed to be near enough to existing facilities.
- Site H17D has the potential for more ‘greening’ with the added potential for Frith Wood and Laindon Common on its southern edge becoming some sort of park and boundary to further development to the south.
- A shuttle bus, subsidised for at least 15 years by the developers, running through, or from, these sites to the station and High Street is being considered.
Accepting that it might not be easy to fully appreciate what that looks like, we have updated our map to show what Feria are proposing. The black relief road shown on the map above becomes a series of estate roads shown in yellow below. The areas above marked for cricket and tennis club relocation are now released and building expanded to the west of the cricket club's current location. The map may not be totally accurate but from memory it gives a good impression of what Feria presented.
On the face of it these would look to be positive changes. But are they?
The relief road has always been contentious, especially in the Frith Wood area, but it was included in the Local Plan to (1) sustain 1,000 extra houses on these sites (taking the number from 700 to the current 1,700) and (2) to help remove congestion from the Sun Corner area. Without the road those two aims are now very questionable. We can only see even worse traffic conditions right across south west Billericay with Tye Common Road and Laindon Road being particularly badly hit. Whilst the proposed shuttle bus might provide some relief, we are still going to see over 2,000 extra cars in the area and a worry is that the estate routes through the 4 sites could become rat runs.
Not relocating the sports clubs is good common sense and moving them was always a bad idea, but the number of houses is not being reduced and the sprawl into the irreplaceable Green Belt is now more pronounced heading west towards Hutton. That land was due to be open public space. Feria acknowledge that there could be landscape sensitivity issues with this proposal.
Making site H17D greener is much welcomed but it is now an isolated site with no internal facilities. Being the most southerly site furthest from the town it is inevitable that it will generate a lot of car journeys onto Laindon Road or Frithwood Lane and then Tye Common Road; two roads that suffer from bad congestion today. It is the second largest site at 520 houses which could mean 1,000+ extra cars.
We questioned whether shuttle buses have been successfully deployed on similar developments elsewhere but did not get a truly convincing reply. We would want to see some thorough and conclusive analysis showing that a bus would have a beneficial effect on traffic, not only through the sites but also across the wider area, before accepting this as a viable and sustainable alternative to the relief road and other road improvements. It would be wrong to put too much faith in this at present as the number of new cars associated with 1,700 houses will exist anyway. For the shuttle bus to be effective there would also need to be more consideration of the various vehicular accesses onto Tye Common Road and Mountnessing Road to provide a through route for the bus whilst preventing rat-running. We also remain to be convinced about the funding/subsidising of the shuttle bus for the proposed duration of 15 years.
We feel uncomfortable with the general vagueness for the provision and funding of the school, health facilities and local shops. The Local Plan remains worryingly deficient in this regard. Basildon Council admit that there remain considerable shortfalls in the funding available for the infrastructure requirements for the entire Plan.
Whilst Feria are supposed to be working on a cohesive Masterplan for the 4 sites as dictated by the Local Plan, we raised concerns over the fact that Redrow seem to have broken ranks and held their own site-specific consultation recently. We believe the other developers will do likewise and may even submit their own separate outline planning applications. In some ways the proposals shown by Feria make the 4 sites look even less joined up, largely through the removal of the relief road. The 4 sites still total 1,700 and a Masterplan is essential to ensure that the infrastructure for that scale of development is adequately delivered. If the sites are allowed to be treated individually that provision will be badly compromised, and we could end up with all the houses and no infrastructure improvements.
There are some glimmers of good thinking in what Feria proposed should these sites finally go ahead when the Local Plan is adopted, but we should not forget that there still remains little justification or local need for such excessive development all at the loss of Green Belt land. We will continue to question the ‘bigger picture’ at the Examination in Public.
Furthermore, the relief road justified the extra 1,000 houses, and vice versa. We are seeing the potential for the road to go but not the houses. We would argue that those houses should be removed too. And the promised improvements at Sun Corner are compromised by removing the road.
The Feria proposals provide no improved confidence that infrastructure issues for residents will be mitigated and could end up with them being worsened. It could be said to play into the Council and developer’s hands by removing all the costly challenges whilst retaining the developments. The potential for chaos over many years whilst sites are built without essential infrastructure remains, compounded by the lack of credible plans for funding and the likely separation of infrastructure projects into separate Planning Applications.
Finally, it seems clear that what Feria is proposing represents material changes to the submitted Local Plan. Indeed the Plan submitted by Basildon Council to the Planning Inspectorate earlier this year has never been subject to a Regulation 18 Consultation despite the housing numbers allocated to Billericay having risen from c1,700 to c2,700 since the public were last allowed a Regulation 18 Consultation. We also see the developers trying to move the goal posts too through their Regulation 19 responses and they will inevitably be pushing for greater house numbers.
Whether the council tries to implement these changes now, during the impending Examination in Public or even after that examination, they will be excluding residents from those decisions if they do not hold a further public consultation. We have long been told that residents should play an active role in determining the future of their communities and we will fight to make sure that is the case. Whether the council believes we have a voice is another matter.
The relief road has always been contentious, especially in the Frith Wood area, but it was included in the Local Plan to (1) sustain 1,000 extra houses on these sites (taking the number from 700 to the current 1,700) and (2) to help remove congestion from the Sun Corner area. Without the road those two aims are now very questionable. We can only see even worse traffic conditions right across south west Billericay with Tye Common Road and Laindon Road being particularly badly hit. Whilst the proposed shuttle bus might provide some relief, we are still going to see over 2,000 extra cars in the area and a worry is that the estate routes through the 4 sites could become rat runs.
Not relocating the sports clubs is good common sense and moving them was always a bad idea, but the number of houses is not being reduced and the sprawl into the irreplaceable Green Belt is now more pronounced heading west towards Hutton. That land was due to be open public space. Feria acknowledge that there could be landscape sensitivity issues with this proposal.
Making site H17D greener is much welcomed but it is now an isolated site with no internal facilities. Being the most southerly site furthest from the town it is inevitable that it will generate a lot of car journeys onto Laindon Road or Frithwood Lane and then Tye Common Road; two roads that suffer from bad congestion today. It is the second largest site at 520 houses which could mean 1,000+ extra cars.
We questioned whether shuttle buses have been successfully deployed on similar developments elsewhere but did not get a truly convincing reply. We would want to see some thorough and conclusive analysis showing that a bus would have a beneficial effect on traffic, not only through the sites but also across the wider area, before accepting this as a viable and sustainable alternative to the relief road and other road improvements. It would be wrong to put too much faith in this at present as the number of new cars associated with 1,700 houses will exist anyway. For the shuttle bus to be effective there would also need to be more consideration of the various vehicular accesses onto Tye Common Road and Mountnessing Road to provide a through route for the bus whilst preventing rat-running. We also remain to be convinced about the funding/subsidising of the shuttle bus for the proposed duration of 15 years.
We feel uncomfortable with the general vagueness for the provision and funding of the school, health facilities and local shops. The Local Plan remains worryingly deficient in this regard. Basildon Council admit that there remain considerable shortfalls in the funding available for the infrastructure requirements for the entire Plan.
Whilst Feria are supposed to be working on a cohesive Masterplan for the 4 sites as dictated by the Local Plan, we raised concerns over the fact that Redrow seem to have broken ranks and held their own site-specific consultation recently. We believe the other developers will do likewise and may even submit their own separate outline planning applications. In some ways the proposals shown by Feria make the 4 sites look even less joined up, largely through the removal of the relief road. The 4 sites still total 1,700 and a Masterplan is essential to ensure that the infrastructure for that scale of development is adequately delivered. If the sites are allowed to be treated individually that provision will be badly compromised, and we could end up with all the houses and no infrastructure improvements.
There are some glimmers of good thinking in what Feria proposed should these sites finally go ahead when the Local Plan is adopted, but we should not forget that there still remains little justification or local need for such excessive development all at the loss of Green Belt land. We will continue to question the ‘bigger picture’ at the Examination in Public.
Furthermore, the relief road justified the extra 1,000 houses, and vice versa. We are seeing the potential for the road to go but not the houses. We would argue that those houses should be removed too. And the promised improvements at Sun Corner are compromised by removing the road.
The Feria proposals provide no improved confidence that infrastructure issues for residents will be mitigated and could end up with them being worsened. It could be said to play into the Council and developer’s hands by removing all the costly challenges whilst retaining the developments. The potential for chaos over many years whilst sites are built without essential infrastructure remains, compounded by the lack of credible plans for funding and the likely separation of infrastructure projects into separate Planning Applications.
Finally, it seems clear that what Feria is proposing represents material changes to the submitted Local Plan. Indeed the Plan submitted by Basildon Council to the Planning Inspectorate earlier this year has never been subject to a Regulation 18 Consultation despite the housing numbers allocated to Billericay having risen from c1,700 to c2,700 since the public were last allowed a Regulation 18 Consultation. We also see the developers trying to move the goal posts too through their Regulation 19 responses and they will inevitably be pushing for greater house numbers.
Whether the council tries to implement these changes now, during the impending Examination in Public or even after that examination, they will be excluding residents from those decisions if they do not hold a further public consultation. We have long been told that residents should play an active role in determining the future of their communities and we will fight to make sure that is the case. Whether the council believes we have a voice is another matter.
