Welcome to our new blog for the Tendring/Colchester Borders Garden Community Project.
It’s been a busy few months with the exceptional circumstances we find ourselves living in and the challenges we are facing, as local authorities, to deal with the impact of Covid-19.
In May 2020, the government appointed Planning Inspector wrote to us to say that the proposed Garden Community on the Tendring/Colchester Border had strong viability and could therefore proceed. Over the last couple of months, we have started to look ahead to take this exciting development forward.
On behalf of Essex County Council, I am pleased to have been appointed chair of the Tendring/Colchester Borders Garden Community Member Group for the year, along with Cllr Mark Durham. I am joined by Cllr David King and Cllr Julie Young, on behalf of Colchester Borough Council, and Cllr Carlo Guglielmi and Cllr Alan Coley on behalf of Tendring District Council. Working with other members, senior council officers and project staff from all three authorities, our priority focus will now be producing a Development Plan Document (DPD) for the Garden Community.
A DPD outlines key details which planning officers will eventually use to make their decisions on planning applications. Our DPD for the Garden Community will include our commitment to affordable housing; balanced and inclusive homes; creating new jobs and economic opportunities; climate resilience; and innovative water efficiency/reuse measures – among many others.
It is important that this document is produced in partnership with the community and in 2021 we will begin a programme of engagement and consultation. Throughout next year and into 2022, we will encourage individuals, organisations and groups to input and feedback.
We want your ideas on what this Garden Community could be as a future place to live, and it will be easy to take part. More information will be available in our Engagement and Consultation Strategy, which we will be launching soon.
So, please keep a look out in the New Year for how you can take part and help to shape what living in the future could, and should, be like.
Cllr Tony Ball, Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Essex County Council
Chair of the Tendring/Colchester Borders Garden Community Member Group