Conservatives Pull Apart R4U’s Response to Government
Uttlesford District Council’s Conservative members have questioned the Council Leader following the Government’s warnings over the Local Plan. In a letter last month, Michael Gove highlighted UDC’s “poor progress” and timetable “slippage”, demanding an updated timetable and warning of Government intervention.
Cllr Susan Barker, the Conservative group leader, called an Extraordinary meeting of the Council to bring the matter into the public domain and challenge Cllr Lees’ response to the government. Cllr Barker highlighted contradictions and refuted the claims that delays to the timetable were used to improve the housing strategy. She said that the strategy was blown “out the window” following the approval of 1200 homes at Little Easton just days before the public consultation. UDC’s Chief Executive acknowledged the final plan could be “substantially different” to that consulted on last year. Yet the response seeks to soothe Mr Gove’s fears by stating “we do not consider there will be any fundamental changes”. “So which is it?” she asked.
Concerns over school provision and the lack of collaboration with Essex County Council was raised by Cllr Ray Gooding. “We need to make sure there is provision in the right place at the right time”, he said, highlighting the inappropriate location of proposed new schools. “Most of all… there is no provision for pre-school and early years… the most important part of a child’s education”.
Cllr John Moran questioned if there even was a spatial strategy for villages. Regarding the allocation of houses in Ashdon, “there is nowhere I can find that shows where they are going”. He had also been approached by concerned residents of Thaxted, whose housing level is set to grow by over a third in the Local Plan. He said they “will be even more concerned and worried for Thaxted’s future” if they read Cllr Lees’ claim that there will be no fundamental change.
Commenting, local MP for the Saffron Walden constituency Kemi Badenoch said:
“I have been waiting with bated breath since R4U promised a local plan back in summer of 2019, which is what they were elected to do.
“Despite some ill-informed comments at the Extraordinary council meeting by Lib Dem and Independent councillors, as the local MP, I have no formal role in the planning process and was not involved in any decision by the Department regarding the intervention.
“However, I am supportive of the Government holding R4U to account on their timetable to ensure Uttlesford eventually has a local plan, ending the developer free for all currently in place.”
If the new timeline experiences any delays it will miss the Government’s submission deadline of June 2025. With so many shortcomings identified at this early stage, Councillors and residents will be wondering how realistic the proposal is and what the consequences of failure will look like.