An Essex council has pulled its blueprint for more than 20,000 new homes in an attempt to protect the borough’s countryside and stop high-rise flats in the town center. The administration at Basildon Borough Council agreed to withdraw its local plan on 10 February, 2022 after a planner inspector ruled thousands more homes needed to be built than initially proposed.
Scores of people attended the crunch meeting where councillors argued the current plan, which had been inherited from previous administrations, would overdevelop the countryside, with 9,000 homes planned for rural areas like Wickford and Billericay.
But critics warn beginning a new local plan process will leave the borough vulnerable to speculative developments. The council will now make a new plan which would also aim to stop high-rise developments being built in the town center.
Several high rise developments have already gone to appeal, with one having now been given permission, which is why the council wants a new plan with more legal weight. This comes after post-submission modifications had increased the total number of houses in the council’s emerging local plan from 17,791 to 20,190, according to a council report.
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