Colchester's Middlewick Ranges fears over number of houses

The Gazette can reveal that Middlewick Ranges, which was included in Colchester’s local plan as far back as 2016, has been put up for sale by the Government.

But it has also transpired that the 108 hectares of land which have been put up for sale exceeds the 86 hectares of land which had initially been designated for development.

According to a map on the Government website, the plot of land for sale extends from the junction between Mersea Road and Abbotts Road all the way down as far as a Queensland Road.

However, Richard Martin, the spokesman for the Save the Middlewick Ranges campaign group, has said an extra 21 hectares of land to the south-east of the site has also been put up for sale.

The 53-year-old, who has lived next to Middlewick Ranges since the 1980s, said it was a worrying development in the ongoing saga surrounding the site.

He said: “I was at a meeting on Tuesday night and I was alerted to the fact the sale had gone live.

“From what was agreed with the council, showing what land was for sale, the MoD has now increase this by about 25 per cent from 86 hectares to 107 hectares.

“This new land is outside the local plan and there are now concerns it will be put forward in a future development, reducing the amount of wildlife area and increasing the traffic and everything else associated with the development.”

Mr Martin continued by saying there had been a “meddling” of the initial plans.

“I have to wonder if they are trying to increase the number of houses even though it’s been set by the planning inspector," he said. 

“It’s a worrying development if [the MoD] is increasing the amount of land for sale which was never agreed to, because this is larger than the initial 86 hectares initially proposed.

“The reason it was included using the DEFRA metric which land is valued against, but a bespoke metric was created to get around certain problem areas like the acidic grassland.”