brentwood.gov.uk

Dear Council Leader,

I am a resident of Basildon Borough, a close neighbour to Brentwood, which will be affected by whatever local plan is adopted by Brentwood Council.

As such, I wish to object to your proposed ideas for the Local Plan as follows:

1. Building on Green Belt land. The Green Belt MUST always remain as such, and be protected, with no housing allowed. It is the lungs around Brentwood, Basildon and surrounding areas, but is also part of the lungs of the London metropolitan area.

National planning policy is clear that the Green Belt boundaries should only be altered in exceptional circumstances, and the need for housing does not constitute an exceptional circumstance.

Our local Green Belt is a haven for many varieties of wildlife. To name a few, there are hedgehogs, badgers, foxes, frogs, toads, newts, dormice, slow worms, bats, owls, birds of prey and smaller birds, all of which depend on the undisturbed country areas. They can migrate and inter-breed through the Green Belt corridor, but if parts of it are taken away for housing, populations will become isolated and, only able to inter-breed within a small area, will die out.

2. Any building allowed on Green Belt land will constitute a precedent for the future, and once built on, the Green Belt can never be replaced.

3. Green Belt is also required for peoples' leisure pursuits and for the education of our children. To be able to get out into the local countryside is to improve mental health. The more growth there is in the town, the more these are needed.
There have to be facilities for children to play: There have to be parks, sports facilities, community centres. Not enough of these exist at present, and with land being taken up by housing, where are they to go?

4. All brownfield sites must be used before any Green Belt is even considered - and there are plenty of brownfield sites around London and around the country as a whole. London has a much greater capacity to absorb population increases than the towns and villages around South Essex.

5. The predicted increase in population of the area may well have slowed significantly since the result of the EU referendum in 2016. Net migration to the UK in 2017 showed the largest annual fall since records began. Therefore the predicted growth may not be necessary.

6. I see that a new school is proposed for Dunton Hills, but this would not be sufficient to accommodate the total influx of children and local schools and colleges are already full.

7. A large percentage of workers from Brentwood commute into London to work. Where are you going to find the extra capacity on the already overcrowded trains? How will you create the extra parking needed at the station? What new employment opportunities will there be locally?

8. The influx of people will require at least one new hospital, and GP surgeries and dentists are already overstretched. How is this going to be addressed and where are you going to build the new hospital?
Care homes and retirement homes will need to be built. The current facilities will not be sufficient for any influx.

9. Putting all new migrants to the area in one place, i.e. a housing estate, could create ghettoes and cause conflict.

10. A large increase in population of the borough will irrevocably change the character of the town. Expansion will see all the towns and villages merging into one huge connurbation and we will end up as just another suburb of London.