IT has been brought to my attention from an eagle-eyed Middlewick campaigner that Colchester Council has moved the goalposts in the local plan which to me works in the favour of developers.

The threshold for building on the Wick has appeared to have been made easier with the requirements on the site now considered not to be a problem for them.

The plan initially said: “The Local Planning Authority will take a precautionary approach where insufficient information is provided about avoidance, mitigation and compensation measures and secure mitigation and compensation through planning conditions/obligations where necessary.”

All of this text now has been deleted, thus indicating a mitigating circumstance isn’t enough and they will no longer take a precautionary approach.

The council could argue that it has had insufficient information with regards to the ecology on the site, but why has it also made the change in the plan to “biodiversity net gain being a last resort” for a reason for satisfactory mitigation, as well as deleting all of the above from the plan?

I believe it’s because it knows biodiversity net gain isn’t possible if it lets developers concrete over the Wick.

The power is in the hands of the council and it is hiding behind the process.

What is even more interesting is that the Local Plan is handled by a Labour portfolio holder.

So, in the same week Labour are telling residents they don’t want to build on the Wick, behind closed doors they are in fact making it even more likely it will be built on.

With the hearings just weeks away, I think changes like this to local plan are not acceptable.

The council and local councillors keep telling us they are against building here.

Yet they voted for it.

They rejected a proposal to look at alternative options.

They are now changing things to make building easier.

They need to stop saying one thing to residents in public and then secretly doing the exact opposite when no one is looking.

Chris Piggott,

Cavalry Road,

Colchester Conservative candidate for Berechurch

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