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Search the Public Notice PortalFRUSTRATED residents have slammed a south Essex council over a technology issue that has forced a new consultation on plans for more than 6,000 new homes.
Castle Point Council’s local plan will guide the building of the thousands of houses over the next two decades and has been subject to several public consultations over the past year.
Following news that the latest “regulation 19” consultation would need to be re-run, the process has been branded “an utter farce”.
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Martin England is a Hadleigh resident and a campaigner against green belt development in the borough.
He said: “Castle Point Council have messed up with the local plan, and this embarrassment has incompetence and inexperience written all over it.
“This will cause more delay to the delivery of the local plan, it will add more cost to the process, and we will now get more speculative developments, which will put our green belt sites at risk for even longer.”
The regulation 19 consultation was held between August and September, and saw residents offer their views on the council’s suggested sites for future development.
However, during the consultation period, an earlier incomplete draft version of the plan was mistakenly embedded within the online consultation form, and council officers fear respondents who clicked on the link may have unknowingly based their comments on this incomplete draft version.
Andrew Sheldon, Conservative Essex County Council councillor for South Benfleet, said: “This whole plan process has been an utter farce.
“Rather than rerun this consultation, they should have apologised, listened to residents and changed the plan.
“Instead, it’s just given more time for developers to take advantage of the situation and target more green belt before their plan is in place.”
Read more
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- Residents' groups across south Essex unite to oppose green belt developments
- Fresh plans revealed for 2,000-home development on Southend green belt land
Angela Hutchings, the Chief Executive of Castle Point Council has apologised to residents and councillors for the mistake.
She said: “I am committed to upholding the integrity of our consultation processes and we are taking swift and transparent steps to put it right.
“I want to reassure people that the issue relates solely to the consultation process, not to the content of the Castle Point plan itself.”
The new consultation will now run until Friday December 5.
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