Infrastructure
Local Plan Chapter 14 - Sustainable Transport & Infrastructure
Policies STAT1 & INF1
After the loss of the Green Belt, infrastructure is clearly the biggest concern.
IF there is to be building then infrastructure improvements HAVE to be delivered.
The Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) is a key document supporting the Local Plan. Councillors have said that it ensures that infrastructure will meet housing growth based on solid evidence.
Well, our first observations are that it’s a complex technical document, long of external references, but very short on any meaningful content.
It is far from being a clear concise document that gives residents the confidence that infrastructure, of all types, will be provided in good time to meet population growth through proposed mass house building.
Whilst it acknowledges that infrastructure will be needed, when it will be delivered is totally hazy, or simply not mentioned at all.
And as we have long commented, infrastructure funding will come bit by bit, planning application by planning application, over time and is therefore totally unpredictable. There is no up-front money for infrastructure first in a Local Plan. And that unpredictability means that despite there being a Local Plan, and eventual house numbers are known, the core infrastructure providers* will find it all but impossible to plan well.
How, where and when those providers decide to spend any funding is the real concern. And Basildon council has no control over this. But they can keep approving the house building!
As a result we are inevitably going to see ‘just in time’ infrastructure provision, that is, when we have a problem it will be fixed. But we have infrastructure constraints today that aren’t being fixed so the wait and see strategy simply doesn’t work.
‘Just in time’ will in reality be ‘just too late’. Or never!
We all need to highlight our infrastructure concerns when responding to the Local Plan consolidation, not just on a general level but on very specific matters such as transport, education and health.
*Please note that the key infrastructure providers are Essex County Council for Highways & Transport and Education. NHS for Healthcare.
The current Infrastructure Delivery Plan can be viewed here;
IDP
IF there is to be building then infrastructure improvements HAVE to be delivered.
The Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) is a key document supporting the Local Plan. Councillors have said that it ensures that infrastructure will meet housing growth based on solid evidence.
Well, our first observations are that it’s a complex technical document, long of external references, but very short on any meaningful content.
It is far from being a clear concise document that gives residents the confidence that infrastructure, of all types, will be provided in good time to meet population growth through proposed mass house building.
Whilst it acknowledges that infrastructure will be needed, when it will be delivered is totally hazy, or simply not mentioned at all.
And as we have long commented, infrastructure funding will come bit by bit, planning application by planning application, over time and is therefore totally unpredictable. There is no up-front money for infrastructure first in a Local Plan. And that unpredictability means that despite there being a Local Plan, and eventual house numbers are known, the core infrastructure providers* will find it all but impossible to plan well.
How, where and when those providers decide to spend any funding is the real concern. And Basildon council has no control over this. But they can keep approving the house building!
As a result we are inevitably going to see ‘just in time’ infrastructure provision, that is, when we have a problem it will be fixed. But we have infrastructure constraints today that aren’t being fixed so the wait and see strategy simply doesn’t work.
‘Just in time’ will in reality be ‘just too late’. Or never!
We all need to highlight our infrastructure concerns when responding to the Local Plan consolidation, not just on a general level but on very specific matters such as transport, education and health.
*Please note that the key infrastructure providers are Essex County Council for Highways & Transport and Education. NHS for Healthcare.
The current Infrastructure Delivery Plan can be viewed here;
IDP
Roads & Transport
We have taken a look at the Infrastructure Delivery Plan for the emerging Local Plan, plus other associated documentation, and come to the conclusion that no major road improvements are planned for Billericay, despite the plan proposing nearly 8,000 new homes over the next 20 years!
The strategy, if you could call it so, is to focus on reducing car use through sustainable transport options. That’s walking, cycling and public transpor
How could this possibly go wrong?!
If people can afford to buy a house in Billericay they will certainly be able to own a car too, and many houses will have more than one ca
8,000 houses will generate at least that number of cars. It would represent about a 50% increase in the number of cars on our roads.
But with the proposed developments being increasingly further out from the centre of town, key services like schools, doctors, dentists, shops and the rail station will be considerably more than a 15-minute walk away and people will tend to use their car if they have one.
A 15-minute walk is regarded as being the tipping point. Many of the new developments will be a 30-minute walk to key locations.
And despite being Essex, Billericay is actually a hilly location and only the fittest would be able to cycle, especially from South Green and Great Burstead where much of the housing is being proposed.
The hard fact is that the Local Plan will create huge car-dependent estates on the very edges of Billericay, with no localised new services.
If you are concerned by this please raise it in your response to Chapter 14 on Transport & Infrastructure in the Local Plan consultation. The deadline is 16 January.
basildonlocalplan25.commonplace.is/
The strategy, if you could call it so, is to focus on reducing car use through sustainable transport options. That’s walking, cycling and public transpor
How could this possibly go wrong?!
If people can afford to buy a house in Billericay they will certainly be able to own a car too, and many houses will have more than one ca
8,000 houses will generate at least that number of cars. It would represent about a 50% increase in the number of cars on our roads.
But with the proposed developments being increasingly further out from the centre of town, key services like schools, doctors, dentists, shops and the rail station will be considerably more than a 15-minute walk away and people will tend to use their car if they have one.
A 15-minute walk is regarded as being the tipping point. Many of the new developments will be a 30-minute walk to key locations.
And despite being Essex, Billericay is actually a hilly location and only the fittest would be able to cycle, especially from South Green and Great Burstead where much of the housing is being proposed.
The hard fact is that the Local Plan will create huge car-dependent estates on the very edges of Billericay, with no localised new services.
If you are concerned by this please raise it in your response to Chapter 14 on Transport & Infrastructure in the Local Plan consultation. The deadline is 16 January.
basildonlocalplan25.commonplace.is/
Health
The emerging Basildon Local Plan thankfully recognises that primary healthcare (GP services) are inadequate today right across the borough.
The NHS has identified the need for four new primary healthcare hubs across the borough, one of which will be in Billericay.
But there are no details in the Local Plan of where or when it will be provided relative to the proposed 8,000 new homes that will result in about 20,000 more people in Billericay trying to get a doctor or dentist appointment.
House building has already started, with many more houses due to be built in the next 5 years. Unless that new hub is started now, it’s inevitable that the pressure on existing surgeries get worse.
But the Local Plan provides no clear solution when it comes to our hospitals, which are close to breaking point now. The NHS provides no clear plans in this regard.
The Basildon Local Plan will see around 28,000 new houses built right across the borough which equates to 67,000 people. Our neighbouring boroughs of Brentwood, Thurrock, Castle Point, Rochford, Southend and Chelmsford are all planning for mass house building too
The pressures on Basildon, Bloomfield, Southend and Orsett hospitals is going to get a lot worse. Those hospitals are shared across a wide part of mid and south Essex.
If you are concerned by this please raise it in your response to Chapter 14 on Transport & Infrastructure in the Local Plan consultation. The deadline is 16 January.
basildonlocalplan25.commonplace.is/
The NHS has identified the need for four new primary healthcare hubs across the borough, one of which will be in Billericay.
But there are no details in the Local Plan of where or when it will be provided relative to the proposed 8,000 new homes that will result in about 20,000 more people in Billericay trying to get a doctor or dentist appointment.
House building has already started, with many more houses due to be built in the next 5 years. Unless that new hub is started now, it’s inevitable that the pressure on existing surgeries get worse.
But the Local Plan provides no clear solution when it comes to our hospitals, which are close to breaking point now. The NHS provides no clear plans in this regard.
The Basildon Local Plan will see around 28,000 new houses built right across the borough which equates to 67,000 people. Our neighbouring boroughs of Brentwood, Thurrock, Castle Point, Rochford, Southend and Chelmsford are all planning for mass house building too
The pressures on Basildon, Bloomfield, Southend and Orsett hospitals is going to get a lot worse. Those hospitals are shared across a wide part of mid and south Essex.
If you are concerned by this please raise it in your response to Chapter 14 on Transport & Infrastructure in the Local Plan consultation. The deadline is 16 January.
basildonlocalplan25.commonplace.is/
Education
Buried in the materials for the emerging Local Plan is the identified need for two new 3-form primary schools in Billericay.
But this good news is somewhat spoilt by the fact that there are absolutely no details of where, or perhaps more importantly when, they will be built to cater for the proposed 8,000 new homes in Billericay over the next 20 years.
They might be in site H1 (east of Southend Road) and site H6 (west of Tye Common Road) but the details in the policies for those two sites is unclear.
With all of our existing primary schools effectively at full capacity today, and new house building has already started, unless these new schools are also started now it’s inevitable that the pressures on infant & junior school places will get worse before they will ever get better.
But the really bad news is that there are no plans for a new secondary school in Billericay and the proposed solution is downright ugly!
The strategy is that new secondary schools will be built outside of Billericay so that students from those areas will stop coming to the Billericay and Mayflower schools and therefore freeing up places for our local children.
Is that really credible?
We’ve dug a bit deeper and all we can find is a loose suggestion of the need for a new secondary school east of Basildon, possibly at Bowers Gifford. But there are no firm plans to allocate space for the school in the Local Plan policies and yet again there are no details of when such a school would be built.
Many of the children coming to secondary schools in Billericay come from west of Basildon, from places such as Laindon and Langdon Hills. A new school to the far east of Basildon won’t really help.
We have also heard suggestions that new secondary schools outside of Basildon borough, possibly in Dunton (Brentwood Borough) and Rawreth (Rochford Borough) might take some of Basildon's children. But there are no clear proposals or dates for either. The Brentwood Local Plan only mentions primary schools at Dunton and the Rochford Local Plan doesn’t show any details on schools yet.
If you have young children, or grandchildren, in Billericay today that are coming up to school age the short term outlook doesn’t look great. But the longer term looks hazy too.
If you have concerns about education provision from the Local Plan please make your views known by responding to the current consultation Chapter 14 on Transport & Infrastructure. The deadline is 16.
basildonlocalplan25.commonplace.is/
Please see image below for the current school places situation. (with thanks to Paul Bowerman)
But this good news is somewhat spoilt by the fact that there are absolutely no details of where, or perhaps more importantly when, they will be built to cater for the proposed 8,000 new homes in Billericay over the next 20 years.
They might be in site H1 (east of Southend Road) and site H6 (west of Tye Common Road) but the details in the policies for those two sites is unclear.
With all of our existing primary schools effectively at full capacity today, and new house building has already started, unless these new schools are also started now it’s inevitable that the pressures on infant & junior school places will get worse before they will ever get better.
But the really bad news is that there are no plans for a new secondary school in Billericay and the proposed solution is downright ugly!
The strategy is that new secondary schools will be built outside of Billericay so that students from those areas will stop coming to the Billericay and Mayflower schools and therefore freeing up places for our local children.
Is that really credible?
We’ve dug a bit deeper and all we can find is a loose suggestion of the need for a new secondary school east of Basildon, possibly at Bowers Gifford. But there are no firm plans to allocate space for the school in the Local Plan policies and yet again there are no details of when such a school would be built.
Many of the children coming to secondary schools in Billericay come from west of Basildon, from places such as Laindon and Langdon Hills. A new school to the far east of Basildon won’t really help.
We have also heard suggestions that new secondary schools outside of Basildon borough, possibly in Dunton (Brentwood Borough) and Rawreth (Rochford Borough) might take some of Basildon's children. But there are no clear proposals or dates for either. The Brentwood Local Plan only mentions primary schools at Dunton and the Rochford Local Plan doesn’t show any details on schools yet.
If you have young children, or grandchildren, in Billericay today that are coming up to school age the short term outlook doesn’t look great. But the longer term looks hazy too.
If you have concerns about education provision from the Local Plan please make your views known by responding to the current consultation Chapter 14 on Transport & Infrastructure. The deadline is 16.
basildonlocalplan25.commonplace.is/
Please see image below for the current school places situation. (with thanks to Paul Bowerman)
