Tendring Colchester Border Garden Community to be approved

Councillors will discuss the development plan for the Tendring/Colchester Border Garden Community during a meeting of its joint committee today.

The committee, made up of Colchester and Tendring councillors, is expected to approve the plan and recommend it for approval at the next full meetings of Tendring Council and Colchester Council.

If approved by both councils, the plan will then be subject to further public consultation in May and June.

New system - a rapid transit system in Colchester comes as part of the plans (Image: Essex County Council)

The garden community will see between 7,500 and 9,000 homes built on the border near Elmstead and constructed over the next 20 years.

As part of the £99 million scheme, a link road connecting the A120 and A133 is to be built along with a rapid transit system.

The transport system will provide services every few minutes between Colchester’s Park and Ride by the A12, the city centre, the University of Essex and the new housing development in the east.

All responses from residents and stakeholders submitted during the consultation will be collated and sent directly to the Planning Inspectorate.

Aerial view - Colchester from the sky (Image: Newsquest)

The plan’s “compliance and soundness” will then be assessed by an appointed inspector.

A Colchester Council spokesman said: “Several key policies in the draft development plan have been modified in response to views expressed during consultation last year.

“Not least in relation to the provision of additional protection for open spaces and the natural environment.”

The revised plans include a new country park in Salary Brook nature reserve, as well as dedicated green gaps between Elmstead and Wivenhoe.

Axed down - trees are removed to make way for the rapid transit system in Northern Approach Road (Image: Newsquest)

The timeline for the link road and rapid transit system has also been extended to allow a “phased approach” for the delivery.

Works have already begun on the latter, with trees axed down in Northern Approach Road, Colchester, causing a row between the city’s High Steward Sir Bob Russell and County Hall.

The spokesman added a phased approach “will allow for the successful completion of the project, without sacrificing the infrastructure-led approach and overall quality of the development.”