The Bellway outline application for 200 homes as part of the development north of the B1012 was considered at last night's Chelmsford Planning Committee. The only City Councillor from SWF in attendance was Cllr. Bentley - Cllr. Roberts was planning to attend but was unfortunately unwell. No Conservative member for the town showed up - an all too familiar picture.

A representative for the developer gave a 2 minute speech in support of the application. The committee was told that there had been agreement reached with Anglian Water about waste water treatment, which was very welcome and reduced the number of questions we had to ask. He also stated there would be no gas boilers in any of the homes. Cllr. Bentley sought clarification on whether this meant the whole site would be off the gas grid and whether homes would be built to low/zero carbon standards. In reply he was told this was the case - homes would be built to the Future Homes Standards.

We asked if there was an over-arching agreement similar to the Garden Village, but it seems this is not the case. On the question of primary school provision and the lack of clarity from Essex County Council about whether a school will be required we asked once again that this be pursued for the sake of future residents who would face long journeys - probably by car - to take and pick up their children from school as the Bellway site is a long distance from existing schools.

When asked about the adoption of roads by the highways authority it was confirmed that this is what was planned. We can only hope that roads get built to a high enough standard to do so. We asked about the green spaces and whether these will be transferred and managed by the City Council after the development. The Committee was told that the strategic open space (playing fields) and the allotments would be transferred, but everything else would be managed by a trust. This means new residents will have to pay a charge in addition to their Council Tax - not something we wanted to hear as we'd hoped for all open spaces to be transferred. However, CCC has step-in rights within the S106 agreement.

A recording of the meeting can be found at: Planning. The agenda item is near the beginning and lasts about three-quarters of an hour.