Developers Mersea Homes and Countryside Properties have unveiled their detailed plans for a huge housing development in Colchester. Together they intend to build 1,800 homes, a new shopping precinct, a new community centre and much needed new secondary and primary schools.
The development will cover one-hundred hectares of land and the developers have insisted that much of the countryside will survive, with a further thirty-four hectares remaining untouched. Colchester Council had planned to use the land themselves in 2008 to build 2,200 homes but the decision prompted a storm of protest from local residents, who formed the campaign group Love Myland.
Stuart Cook, Mersea Homes’ managing director, said “We believe 1,800 properties, which will be mainly family homes, is the way forward. We feel times have changed and we’re the type of developer which doesn’t want to deliver high density, unattractive schemes. We want a more traditional, lower density scheme with green space and proper infrastructure. We think we can deliver a scheme that’s low density, with lots of green space and the right infrastructure that we’re going to be proud of and people want to buy.”
Protest group Love Myland have collected a petition of 1,500 signatures from locals who are horrified at the huge scale of the development. They fear a loss of wildlife and an increase in traffic in what is already a very congested area of Colchester. The developers will apply for outline planning permission early next year and hope to get the go-ahead for 2013. It is anticipated the site will house two bedroomed, three bedroomed and four bedroomed homes, many covered by landlord insurance.
The intention of both the developers and the council is to have the first homes occupied by 2014.