Rejection of Uttlesford Local Plan

We acted for Great Dunmow Town Council in the Uttlesford District Council (“UDC”) local plan, Reg 18 and Reg 19 stages, and Examination in Public to oppose a 10,000 unit housing estate adjacent to Great Dunmow. Following the EiP, the Local Plan inspectors recommended UDC withdraw the plan finding the so-called garden community allocation was unsound due to traffic impacts and heritage harm.

Great Dunmow Town Council opposed Land Sec’s proposed large garden community at Easton Park, located in close proximity to the Stansted Airport buffer land on the basis of landscape harm, heritage harm and the severe transport impacts on the A120. We instructed experts on these issues and submitted their reports to the Local Plan Examination and then called experts at the hearings to give evidence to the Inspectors. In the Inspectors’ report following the examination they agreed with Great Dunmow Town Council and other objectors:

We have significant concerns in relation to the soundness of the plan. In particular, we are not persuaded that there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Garden Communities, and thus the overall spatial strategy, have been justified.

Key to the Inspectors’ findings was the lack of credible garden community sustainability and lack of reliable transport infrastructure to mitigate traffic from the large housing estate. “We cannot be content in principle that the new proposed settlements would be true Garden Communities, or that the plan’s stated vision for these new settlements would be met.”

In relation to Land Sec’s failure to commit to funding public transport provision to serve the garden community, the Inspectors found the lack of new public transport infrastructure conflicts with garden community ideals to bring a step change to reliance on the private car:

There is a danger that the Garden Communities would be served by little more than a conventional, regularly running bus service for a good number of years. This would use the existing road network, which is at times congested and there are concerns that such a bus service would be no quicker, and potentially slower, than travelling by car…. Buses running on existing unsegregated carriageways, … is unlikely to encourage the residents to use their cars less for local journeys…. We consider this would be directly at odds with Garden Community Principle 7 which requires integrated and accessible transport systems, with walking, cycling and public transport designed to be the most attractive forms of local transpo.