Outrageous development in Wickham Bishops refused by Councillors
Witham MP Priti Patel has welcomed the decision taken by councillors on Maldon District Council’s North Western Area Planning Committee to refuse the planning application for 50 dwellings on a site off of Church Road, Wickham Bishops.
Priti has been working with local residents and the Parish Council opposed to the outrageous development plan, which would have imposed an unsustainable large development outside of the village settlement boundary. Although the Council’s planning officers had recommended granting planning permission, councillors were persuaded by the robust representations made opposing the plans to refuse the application.
The plans were an outline planning application and therefore lacked detail but would have left the village exposed to an unacceptable development and were similar to a previous proposal refused by the Council and rejected at appeal.
Commenting on the decision Priti said: “These plans for this site were unacceptable and outrageous. The scale of the development proposed and likely impact on infrastructure and services were unsustainable and I welcome the decisions councillors took to reject these plans.
Local residents and the Parish Council have once again come together to put forward a robust case to refuse a large-scale development at this location and I was pleased to support them in their efforts.
Although this application has been refused, we must be prepared to continue to fight in case this decision is appealed or another application is submitted in the future.”