A report on the Uttlesford draft Local Plan made public this week (wk/comm. 12/11/18) poses searching questions about the Council’s competence and behaviour, stretching from the officers that prepared the plan to councillors who approved it for public consultation. Several… Continue Reading →

More than 1,000 people have joined the Stop North Uttlesford Town Action Group page at Facebook. It’s the ideal way to pick up news about the local plan and read latest views on planning and housing policy. You can also… Continue Reading →

New government figures have raised yet more questions about the level of housing need in Uttlesford. The council’s forecast could be overstated by as much as 3,000 houses. The following press release was issued 24/09/18 by StopNUtown Action Group Uttlesford… Continue Reading →

If you’re interested to know what will happen in future, these are the remaining milestones for the local plan. Submission Reg 22: After compiling the representations received on the (Regulation 19) Local Plan, the document will be submitted to the… Continue Reading →

Here is the submission made by the StopNUtown Action Group Steering Committee to the pre-submission Uttlesford Local Plan. Rather than try to cover everything we focussed on key issues that strike at the credibility of the decision-making process of the… Continue Reading →

This video – filmed by drone – shows the landscape that will be covered by the proposed new town next to Great Chesterford. It provides a really good appreciation of the expansive and rural countryside that will be swallowed up… Continue Reading →

The elevation of the proposed North Uttlesford Garden Community will put it in the top 2% of most visible land in Uttlesford, making it visible from 57% of all surrounding land in a 5 mile radius. By comparison Saffron Walden’s… Continue Reading →

By a resident of the parish: Living among the beauty of these surrounding fields of Great Chesterford, here all that lay deep within its heart is ‘nature’. As witness to the incredible night time habits of many creatures who frequent… Continue Reading →

By Isabelle Lewis, age 15: Any envisaged proposal for the NUGC, including the vital importance for a safe and sustainable transport scheme that actually works, should provide evidence to address key safety issues concerning the village of Great Chesterford and… Continue Reading →

The area around Great Chesterford is historically and archeologically important. Artefacts have been found dating back to pre-historic, Iron Age, Roman and Anglo Saxon times. The natural rolling landscape has been sculpted by nature and settlers across the centuries built villages… Continue Reading →

For many observers of the local plan process, the North Essex Garden Communities have  represented a benchmark. The 3-community scheme has been in process for some years and is backed by the Government. And yet when submitted to the planning… Continue Reading →

In May 2018, StopNUtown published a 20-page booklet about the proposed North Uttlesford Garden Community (NUGC). The booklet outlines why NUGC is “the wrong place for the wrong reasons” and will not be sustainable, and how the conduct of UDC… Continue Reading →

On the eve of UDC’s Planning Policy Working Group meeting to finalise the district local plan (ready for cabinet and ultimately a full council vote), StopNUtown Action Group published an open Letter to Council leader, Howard Rolfe, which contains four… Continue Reading →

Michael Young has over the years intensively studied  Uttlesford’s jobs and population growth, first in the context of Stansted Airport and latterly for the Local Plan and its implication for housing. He has for some while argued that the figure for housing need in Uttlesford… Continue Reading →

Following our MP’s visit to Great Chesterford for the annual village meeting the action group has written to Mrs Badenoch in response to remarks she made and to provide a fuller explanation of comments made to her in the Q&A… Continue Reading →

Extract of an article about transport provisions for new “garden communities” points to a continuing car dependency and debunks claims that new communities’ residents will make only 30 per cent of their journeys by car instead of the 70 per cent of… Continue Reading →

It’s official – The planning system is broken. That may seem like a statement of the bleedin’ obvious, but it is also the conclusion of an interim report published by former MP and minister for Housing, Nick Raynsford, who as… Continue Reading →