Council’s new homes plan will cost £250k (From Echo)

Council’s new homes plan will cost £250k

8:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in News By Jacqueline McMillan

A PLAN setting out where houses will be built across Castle Point will cost taxpayers more than £250,000 and take two years to complete.

Castle Point Council is creating a new Local Development Framework for the next 15 years after the original plan was scrapped in September.

The council spent four years and almost £500,000 drawing up the first document but was forced to start again from scratch after the proposals sparked a massive public backlash as residents felt they were not properly consulted and did not want building on green belt.

Now, the authority is set to spend a further £261,380 on putting together the new plan, which it expects will take up to two years to complete.

About £44,000 of this has been especially allocated for the consultation process with residents, which will take place between January and March, then again between October and December, before finishing between May and June next year.

Pam Challis, leader of Castle Point Council, said: “This new local plan will allow us to have a much more pragmatic view of what should be built in the borough and where.

“The significance of this is that, in consultation with residents, the new plan will aim to protect the green land in the borough as best we can.”

The first consultation process includes 14 public meetings and coffee mornings, and leaflets and questionnaires sent to all households in Castle Point.

Mrs Challis said: “We recognise the public felt they did not have enough input in the core strategy.

“We want people to have their say on what they think are the requirements for the borough, on what they feel it needs.”

The previous local development framework included plans for 500 new homes on green belt in Daws Heath, 650 in Thundersley, 300 on Canvey, and at least 600 between Benfleet and the outskirts of Pitsea.

Council bosses assured residents at a Benfleet Neighbour-hood Meeting on Wednesday the new strategy will not condone building on green belt land.