Overview of Consultation
Basildon council has begun a final consultation on its Local Plan that would see Billericay grow by over 60% over the next 17 years should all the proposed development take place. There would be around 9,000 new houses and the towns of Basildon and Billericay would effectively merge.
Stepping back a little, the plan for Basildon borough as a whole is proposing over 28,000 new homes, the greater proportion of which (over 18,000) will require building on the current Green Belt, not just in Billericay, but also Wickford, Laindon, Bowers Gifford, North Benfleet and Pitsea. These are distinct historic areas with their own identities that will be lost through the vast scale of development being put forward. There is a real risk that everywhere will just become suburbs of Basildon town.
To put this into a different perspective, 28,000 houses would be the same as building another Billericay and Wickford and trying to squeeze them into the precious green areas that exist today. 67,000 new residents are going to have a profound impact on existing communities and all walks of life.
There is a subtle difference now compared to the earlier Local Plan consultations where the council was saying “this is what we are thinking of doing” and asked us what we thought to assist their final decisions.
We are now being presented with what the council sees as the final plan that they want to put in place.
This time the council is saying "this is what we intend to do - but is the content 'Sound'".
Soundness might be described as meaning that the pressure to deliver housing has been properly balanced against harms caused, specifically to the Green Belt, and the requirement for employment, transport, education, health, open space and other infrastructure.
Do you agree?
Although the council is managing this exercise, the audience for your comments is really the Planning Inspector.The Inspector’s job is to examine the Local Plan in detail to see whether it adequately balances these competing priorities.
Ahead of the Examination in Public (EiP), the inspector issues the council with many hundreds of questions about their content and approach. These form the basis of the examination hearings. We have the chance to influence those questions and possibly give the Inspector more to ask by raising our observations and concerns.
The public know the area better than planning officers, and certainly the Inspector, so our job is to help the Inspector by raising issues that will trigger difficult questions for the council to answer.
Remember that the developers will be replying too, trying to persuade the Inspector to include more housing and land, and weaken their infrastructure obligations.
There's so much to play for, and even broadly sound Local Plans are usually required to make numerous changes as a result of the examination process. Please don’t let this opportunity slip by. Please make your views known. We might be able to influence the final outcome.
In other sections on this website, you will find further details about the process, what the Local Plan is proposing, how to respond, plus ideas of the areas to raise in your responses.
Please do not be daunted by the consultation. We accept that it does not look straightforward. However, you do not to respond to all of it, just a few select areas will do, and hopefully the information we have provided will help.
The consultation runs until 22 September, so time is short.
Stepping back a little, the plan for Basildon borough as a whole is proposing over 28,000 new homes, the greater proportion of which (over 18,000) will require building on the current Green Belt, not just in Billericay, but also Wickford, Laindon, Bowers Gifford, North Benfleet and Pitsea. These are distinct historic areas with their own identities that will be lost through the vast scale of development being put forward. There is a real risk that everywhere will just become suburbs of Basildon town.
To put this into a different perspective, 28,000 houses would be the same as building another Billericay and Wickford and trying to squeeze them into the precious green areas that exist today. 67,000 new residents are going to have a profound impact on existing communities and all walks of life.
There is a subtle difference now compared to the earlier Local Plan consultations where the council was saying “this is what we are thinking of doing” and asked us what we thought to assist their final decisions.
We are now being presented with what the council sees as the final plan that they want to put in place.
This time the council is saying "this is what we intend to do - but is the content 'Sound'".
Soundness might be described as meaning that the pressure to deliver housing has been properly balanced against harms caused, specifically to the Green Belt, and the requirement for employment, transport, education, health, open space and other infrastructure.
Do you agree?
Although the council is managing this exercise, the audience for your comments is really the Planning Inspector.The Inspector’s job is to examine the Local Plan in detail to see whether it adequately balances these competing priorities.
Ahead of the Examination in Public (EiP), the inspector issues the council with many hundreds of questions about their content and approach. These form the basis of the examination hearings. We have the chance to influence those questions and possibly give the Inspector more to ask by raising our observations and concerns.
The public know the area better than planning officers, and certainly the Inspector, so our job is to help the Inspector by raising issues that will trigger difficult questions for the council to answer.
Remember that the developers will be replying too, trying to persuade the Inspector to include more housing and land, and weaken their infrastructure obligations.
There's so much to play for, and even broadly sound Local Plans are usually required to make numerous changes as a result of the examination process. Please don’t let this opportunity slip by. Please make your views known. We might be able to influence the final outcome.
In other sections on this website, you will find further details about the process, what the Local Plan is proposing, how to respond, plus ideas of the areas to raise in your responses.
Please do not be daunted by the consultation. We accept that it does not look straightforward. However, you do not to respond to all of it, just a few select areas will do, and hopefully the information we have provided will help.
The consultation runs until 22 September, so time is short.
