Object
Strategic Growth Options
Representation ID: 4485
Received: 15/02/2015
Respondent: Cllr Roger Hirst
The A12 Corridor is not a coherent unit and should be broken into its constituent communities to enable their specific characters and infrastructure to be considered, so as to optimise growth across the Borough.
(A) North of the Borough and (C) A127 Corridor make sense as geographic and cohesive community areas and can be considered as units in terms of approach to growth. However (B) A12 Corridor is selected based on no really coherent logic. The A12 is itself not a driver of growth, or growth patterns, across the area; there are no junctions through the main bulk of the settlement population, ie between Brook St and Mountnessing. It would be much more sensible to treat each of the major settlements in this area separately, which would mean separate "broad areas" for i) Brentwood (market town), ii) Shenfield & Hutton (London-oriented commuter settlements) , iii) Ingatestone & Mountnessing (rural settlements), iv) Herongate & Ingrave (rural villages) and v) Pilgrims Hatch (area with particular development need). Each of these are distinct communities, with different characters and issues which merit consideration in detail. If the LDP is to fulfil its goal of optimising development across the Borough these areas cannot be lumped together.