Comment
Draft Local Plan
Representation ID: 15222
Received: 03/05/2016
Respondent: Bellway Homes Essex
Agent: Savills UK
The reduction in site capacity is as a result of the need to ensure separation between Mountnessing and Ingatestone through the provision of a green buffer on the site. However, the Council's Assessment of Potential Housing, Employment and Mixed Use Sites in the Green Belt (2016 draft) identifies the site as making a low to moderate contribution to the five purposes of including land within the green belt and the 'moderate' contribution is partly as a result of the assessment concluding that the two settlements (Ingatestone and Mountnessing) would no longer be separate and there is a risk of coalescence. The assessment states that the site has a countryside function, but since the Garden Centre has stopped trading and much of the site being previously developed land, it is considered that it has no countryside function.
The A12 provides a strong physical barrier to prevent coalesce and therefore this should not be a 'moderate' classification but a 'low' contribution.
See attached.