Epping South Disaster Plan - Viewpoint
- May 6
- 3 min read
(note - we apologise for a number of typo's in an earlier version of this article)
If there are any key lessons to be drawn from last weeks County Council Elections and the Runcorn & Helsby by-election, they should be that the public are fed up with elected officials
who do not give a dam about public opinion and do their own thing regardless. People will let their views be know through the ballot box.
Which brings us to Epping Forest District Council who a short while ago waved through plans to build a huge development on a beautiful and historic piece of land in South Epping. Land that was once 'greenbelt' but got shifted to another classification to make the proposal more palatable. After all no one wants to build on greenbelt with its image of rolling fields and lush wildlife but 'brownbelt' has a kind of industrial ring about it conjouring up images of disused Victorian factories laced with a unhealthy dab of polluted soil which can usefully reclaimed to build housing.
This is the kind of coak and dagger techniques used by EFDC to forward their objectives. But it doesn't stop there. So that everything looks above board and democratic they set up a consultation with public meetings so the public have their say. Then the results of said consultation come back which show nearly 75% of the public are either against or very against the proposals. Oh dear... not what they wanted to hear and plans are too far advanced to pay any attention to public opinion. So the months pass... Summer to Autumn to Winter and the consultation document still remains unpublished. Luckily for the people of Epping, The Epping Society are taking note and put in a 'Freedom of Information' request for the document which they legally have to then produce.
At over 300 pages this document was a total revelation. No wonder they did not want you to see it. For a start there were about 100 pages of objections from the public but it was that chart which showed nearly three quarters of residents agaist the plans. That is a huge percentage.
These plans then went to EFDC Planning Committee and Councillors were provided with a 12 page summary documant. Let us tell you now that your views merited about 3 lines on page 11 of the document. Yes that right 100 pages of objections and a huge public consultation reduced to a few lines. That fact speaks volumes. It says that this development is going to get built whatever local people think.
Epping Mayor Cherry McCready has very aptly labeled it the 'South Epping Disaster Plan'. No concrete plans for additional school places or GP provision. Totally inappropriate roads which already can get quite congested. Very sadly a person lost their life recently in car accident close to the area. Going ahead will surely heighten the possibility of more loss of life.
Last Friday a demonstration was held on the proposed site. EFDC have said that more affordable housing is needed but we know that, as with the old Epping Primary site the developers will come forward with a 'deed of variation' to their contracts and ask to scale back affordable housing with excuses that it is no longer viable.
Epping Society is NOT agaist all development but it must be suitable and well thought out and with minimal environmental impact. This development has all the hallmarks of a disaster. More traffic on the roads, More pollution, More Health Issues and so on.
We would remind EFDC that you exist to serve us. You are public servants and it is not your job just to push forward with plans that your voters are against in such a decisive way. Why spend vast amounts of public money on a consultation that you fully intend to ignore.
It is NOT too late to have a rethink and put forward plans that your voters can get behind.
Your parties will be punnished at any future elections if you ignore your own consultation document and Epping Society will remind everyone when such elections come around. You might want to be thinking about your colleagues at Essex County Council who will be facing the electors next May.
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