Housing rethink sparks development fears

ANTI-HOMES campaigners fear a major policy rethink could lead to more than 100 houses being built in their historic village.

SOS - Save Our St Osyth - was set up two years ago to battle controversial proposals for hundreds of new homes.

Now there are fears a change in Tendring Council ’s housing blueprint could also lead to massive new development in the village.

The authority wants to ditch proposals to build thousands of new homes in Clacton.

Instead new homes will be split evenly across the district with communities expected to shoulder a six per cent increase in housing.

Residents in St Osyth fear that will pave the way for more than 100 new homes on their doorstep.

SOS spokesman David Smith said: “St Osyth was down for zero new housing - now suddenly we are looking at 111 homes at least."

Bosses at Tendring Council decided to rewrite planning policy after a public consultation.

They say a blanket six per cent increase in housing across the district is fairer.

But Mr Smith claims it could spell disaster and lead to a planning “free-for-all” if the new policy is challenged and overturned.

The local plan is due to go before Tendring Council on Tuesday.

Comments(7)

Bramble1979 says...
9:04am Fri 7 Sep 12

Looks the rise of the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) again.

Doesn't Mr Smith realise that more housing is needed to meet future demand and that it should be spread evenly throughout the district and be a mix of affordable and other homes.

Why should St.Osyth be exempt?

111 homes is not a massive development especially if spread over various sites, And if built over a 10 year period, its not as if they will appear overnight.

None of us want the huge developments that were planned for Sladburys Lane in Holland, which would have a huge impact on our community.

Spreading the number of housing sites over the district would be the fair way to do this. Well done for Tendring Council for having a sensible approach to this tricky problems that needs to be solved.

I would welcome more homes for local people in St.Osyth, as I'm sure would youngsters that grew up in St.Osyth and have been forced out of the area due to high property prices.

As for infrastructure St.Osyth is served by 3 GP practices (2 in the village and 1 in Gt Bentley) It has a primary school which has space to expand if necessary, A good selection of local shops, restaurants and pubs,which i'm sure would welcome more trade, and good road and bus links to Clacton.

It's just a shame that Mr Smith can't see the bigger picture, is stuck the past and thinks he should be immune to change. Perhaps he should consider a move to more a solitary community!

Farmhouse France says...
10:33am Fri 7 Sep 12

Perhaps property owners in St Osyth are concerned about what type of people will be in these new homes as residents of Clacton have discovered.

Scoot says...
11:31am Fri 7 Sep 12

@Bramble1979 -Its not the rise of the NIMBY, development is a major problem in St Osyth. The Primary school has room to expand - OK where ? The hard playground ? So where do the kids play when the field is too wet and the younger kids have their outside learning area ? The field - Have you had your head buried in the sand for the past month ? have you heard of "inspire a generation" or would you like the kids to be obese ? The staff car park ? Norman close is bad enough as it is let alone an additional 30 or so cars. So where do you suggest ? As to the GP practices in the village they are all full so people HAVE to go to Great Bentley. As for the infrastructure, I take it you haven't had to sit at the crossroads for 30 minutes to get onto a road out of the village.The blueprint doesn't say what type of houses will be built so they could be luxury homes for commuters, so they won't be taking the bus because there is no service early enough to get you to Clacton early enough to commute to London.
@Farmhouse France - I take it you've not visited the village recently. Some of the residents make living in Jaywick look like Hollywood Hills.

Bramble1979 says...
1:03pm Fri 7 Sep 12

@scoot - If all of us in tendring have to take some housing locally, why should st.osyth be any different? You all seem so anti progress and anti future. Things have to change at some point!

Schools can be developed. New schools can be built.

Whats better a few homes or the massive planned priory development.

Scoot says...
2:35pm Fri 7 Sep 12

Bramble, where though ?? as the song goes "the only way is up" but where is the money to do that and no doubt it would be met with objections from H&E that primary schools have to be on one level. As for a new school then you have a financial problem of the cost of building it and where exactly it could be built. The final problem is the catchment area for the school. Any new development unless on the very outer edges of the village could result in kids from Point Clear or St Osyth Beach having to go out of the village to school. Finally put a thin end of the wedge in and you can bet your bottom dollar that the QC for a certain well known property developer who is claiming poverty over renovating his 'home' would argue that a few more hundred houses wouldn't do any harm.
There are plenty of places in the district that could be developed that would not have such a drastic effect on a village.

Bramble1979 says...
7:56pm Fri 7 Sep 12

Well said Itsa-dailyramble

Scoot says...
12:28pm Sun 9 Sep 12

Itsa, I was getting at the behaviour of the residents. Farmhousefrance was making the comment that we should be concerned about who would occupy the houses. We shouldn't be judging the behaviour of some of the residents of the village, the term Chav would be viewed as a compliment.

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