Lib Dems Challenge Elsenham New Town Plan

12.53.41am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 5th Sep 2007

The Liberal Democrats oppose Uttlesford Tories' poorly thought-out plan for a new town at Elsenham.

This evening (4th September) the ruling Tories on Uttlesford District Council pushed through a shock proposal for a massive 3000 house new settlement at Elsenham which would triple the size of this village. Leader of the council, Jim Ketteridge, said that the start of a town between Elsenham and Henham was the Conservatives' preferred option for locating the bulk of the 4,200 additional homes that the council has to allocate over the next 17 years.

The Lib Dems attacked the proposal, which emerged from a meeting of the Conservative group at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening, only half an hour before the public meeting of the Environment Committee yet without any background information or advice from council officers. The Lib Dems argued that it was premature to put forward any specific locations without technical background work having been done and made public.

Cllr Alan Dean, member for Stansted said " No decision should have been taken on choosing detailed options, even though only for consultation, until sufficient rationale had been produced of the impacts (both positive and negative) on the existing Uttlesford Communities. Decisions out of a hat like this make a complete mockery of the planning system and risk bringing ridicule on the council for producing ill thought through ideas on the hoof."

"I asked the Committee to defer any decision on detailed numbers of housing and location until the principles have been clearly established and communicated with the public. I urged the committee to maintain a quality process and not rush forward with a flawed process for this important development framework."

The Tories on the committee voted down this amendment from Cllr Dean. A second amendment not to single out Elsenham in any consultation on the principle of a new settlement was lost on the casting vote of the committee chairman, Conservative Susan Barker. Council officers had advised against putting forward a new settlement idea in the next round of consultation.

Cllr Peter Wilcock, Leader of Uttlesford Lib Dem Group added "If this is supposed to be democracy in action at Uttlesford, then I will be asking the full council to review this decision, and will be calling in the decision. No adequate infrastructure proposals such as road access to the Elsenham/Henham area exist apart from BAA's proposals for a second runway at Stansted. Uttlesford Tories have now opened the floodgates for new settlement proposals all across the district and have given an amber light for a second runway without realising it. This is an appalling insult to the people of Uttlesford."

Cllr Mark Gayler, Chair of Uttlesford's East Area Panel commented "My area panel and also the south-west area panel covering Elsenham and Stansted wanted more work be undertaken on the capacity of different settlements to take further development and the infrastructure required. The public have a right to know this first rather than being pitched straight into a meaningless house numbers game. This has clearly not happened."