LOCAL PLANNING MATTERS
Land north of Forest Drive. EPF/0292/21: The letter of Grant of planning permission has finally been sent to the developer’s agent dated 3 April 2025 following the decision to permit given at EFDC Planning Committee on 17 January 2024 There are 43 conditions and one point of interest to residents is that no agreed route for construction vehicles etc to access the site has been included. It is noted that EFDC have continued to ignore their own policies in allowing a three-storey block of flats to be built on this site, at the edge of settlement, adjacent to Green Belt land, without the supporting street view diagrams having been submitted with the application and still with little on-street parking for visitors. The road into the site is not to be adopted by ECC Highways and will remain a private enclave. The S106 Agreement which requires payment of monies to EFDC and ECC for various infrastructure related works, has also been published and all documents concerning this application can be seen on EFDC’s website.
Macris House. EPF/0507/25: Change of use from care home to residential and conversion to 8 x two bedroom flats.
TBAG have objected to this third application on the grounds of unsustainability, lack of safe pedestrian links to the village and other issues. EFDC’s specialist consultants refused the site to be included for housing in the current Local Plan as it was too remote from the village, a loss of a social asset (care home) and associated employment losses. TBAG are astonished that the home has closed since there is now a greater need for residential accommodation for the elderly.
Government planning situation
TBAG have written to our MP, Dr Neil Hudson, asking why Government insist on demanding 1.5 million dwellings be built over the term of their parliament when there are, as a matter of record, 1.4 million already granted planning permissions for homes awaiting development. We have asked Dr Hudson to raise this matter in The House as we feel if these dwellings were built out there would be no need for the continued assault on the countryside and Green Belts. Central Government seem keen to place the blame on local planning authorities for taking too long to process applications. Government claim to need to ‘cut through red tape’ at a local level. Developers like to drip feed their new homes onto the market to keep prices artificially high.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan’s London Local Plan did not meet the Government’s requirement for housebuilding and so Mr Khan now proposes to build in the Green Belt in outer London Boroughs. This could of course impact Epping Forest District as the outward thrust of building continues around our borders.
Devolution plans for Epping Forest District Council initiated by the Labour party and voted-in by local Conservative Councillors on 10 January 2025 to make our local government administration organised as a Unitary Authority is now approved. We are currently being administered by County Councillors who have not been democratically voted in and are holding office until the new Unitary Authority has been established. EFDC has committed to take part in the Government’s devolution priority programme (this would see a mayoral county combined authority established in April 2026 and a mayoral election take place in May 2026) and to commit to local government reorganisation. TBAG are deeply concerned about the loss of local democracy that this represents and with respect to planning, decisions will be made on applications by persons who have little or no knowledge of our parish or district.