President's Page
M.W. Hanson 3 Church Cottages, Church Road, Boreham, Essex CM3 3EG
I have recently written a response to the East of England Plan published in December
2004, the so-called Regional Spatial Strategy. The plan covers the eastern counties namely
Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and as such
deals with planning matters of regional but not national significance. The lifetime of the
plan is from now until 2021.
The plan has been produced by the East of England Regional Assembly, which as many of
you will now know has had wide-ranging powers conferred upon it by central government
and has in this instance taken over the planning powers of elected county councils other
than the poisoned chalice of mineral extraction and waste disposal in Essex.
The 'highlights' of the plan if you can call them that are principally concerned with
housing development in the region, which as a whole is expected to take some 478,000
new dwellings. I calculate this will mean some one million new inhabitants (the region
currently has a population of 2.5 million). Essex has, by a big margin, been requested to
take the largest number of new dwellings at 123,400. Sample quotas include - Basildon
10,700, Chelmsford 14,000, Thurrock UA 18,500 and Colchester 17,100. The
implications for the county are fairly obvious, the character of the Essex landscape in
many affected areas and beyond will be dramatically altered by this number of new
houses and their inhabitants. Apparently only 20% of the housing will be 'affordable'
whatever that means.... (in my opinion no housing in SE England is ever affordable).
The number of houses destined to be built in the two UAs - Southend and Thurrock -
reflect their status as part of the Thames Gateway growth area.
Environmental issues are catered for as well. On page 178 of the report there is a stated
commitment to designated sites continuing to receive the highest levels of protection
preceded on page 60 by the proposal to 'reclaim' (ie. destroy) the 90 hectare SSSI at
Bathside Bay, Harwich in order to build four new deep-sea berths no doubt to take some
of the inhabitants of the 478,000 new dwellings on holiday. There will also be significant
transport developments to facilitate this new port development all the way from the
M25 to Harwich, which will further open up this area to massive commercial exploitation.
One of the funniest bits in the plan is in the so-called sustainability report which sets out
the objectives of the plan- it states on page 3 sections x and xi that prime objectives will
be to protect and enhance the natural environment including its biodiversity and landscape
character and will minimise the demand for use of resources particularly water, energy,
minerals and aggregates......what ? and build 478,000 houses at the same time !!
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 47, May 2005
5