***PRESS RELEASE - Land East of Epping: the next phase of “Epping under Siege”

`the land boundary proposed for the `Epping East development

On Wednesday 24^th September, Pigeon Developments held a “community workshop” at the Silley Pavilion on Stonards Hill Recreation ground. There was an unusually evident Security presence.

Pigeon are in the early stages of planning a development of housing on land between Bower Hill, The Orchards and Stewards Green Road; we saw displays explaining and large maps. Staff who dealt courteously with the fairly large numbers of residents.  Much was made of the alleged problem that EFDC had not built enough new homes as specified in the Local Plan and that it was therefore acceptable for other, new developments to come forward.

The area was not designated for development in the EFDC Local Plan, and is currently Green Belt. The developers argued that it met the criteria for the Government’s new “Grey Belt” legislation and was therefore suitable for development; we would not agree.

Local opinion had not been heartened by a doorstep leaflet from Pigeon, which had to be re-issued as it had the wrong day/date; also with the incorrect symbol for the Tube station (as being British Rail). Comments were invited on a large sheet of paper: these seemed to be almost exclusively negative, as was most of the conversation we heard. We ran out of paper. People focussed on the usual issues of critical infrastructure, especially roads, transport, tube, access (during construction and after), water, sewage, loss of good productive farmland, power, pollution, schools, doctors, dentists, etc. The general feeling we took was that residents were strongly against this project.

The developers said they were prepared to consider providing facilities, which might include nursery provision, community hall, local shop, mobility hub, country park, sports provision, elderly care, a mix of house sizes & tenures (with a stated promise of 50% “affordables”), cycling & walking routes, wildlife & nature areas; and were seeking community opinion about what was needed. We have to say that that we have seen such “promise lists” before!

Pigeon staff would not respond to questions about house numbers, saying it depended on what else was in the site, such as a country park.

The site has an area of 26 hectares (65 acres); but Pigeon’s map showed only 60% of this to be built on. Local recent developments have worked at an average density of around 30 per hectare – so our very rough estimate might be 400 homes. 

Further details of this proposal by Pigeon are on their site www.eppingeast.co.uk, with an online survey. The obvious question “are you in favour of this development” does not feature; we will maybe have to shoehorn that into Q 8 or 9.

No deadline is given for comments, so we would urge all to make their views known at earliest reasonable convenience. Pigeon plan a stall in the Monday market, perhaps in early November. A promise was given by one of the Pigeon staff that all comments would be reviewed and quoted verbatim in a report.

Roger Lowry, Vice Chair, the Epping Society, with other members of the Planning Group.