Essex council proposes to meet development needs through release of green belt sites

Brentwood Borough Council's provisional draft local plan (136-page / 3 MB PDF) provides for the development of 7,240 new homes in the borough between 2013 and 2033.

According to the document, 89% of the borough is within the metropolitan green belt, constraining development opportunities and "making it difficult to meet local needs in full". Whilst proposing a sequential use of land, with urban brownfield sites first, the draft plan allows for "limited" release of green belt land to ensure needs are fully met.

The Council has proposed to release some green belt land "within transport corridors, in strategic locations to deliver self sustaining communities with accompanying local services, and urban extensions with clear defensible physical boundaries to avoid further sprawl and provide development swiftly".

The draft plan allocates the Dunton Hills Garden Village strategic development site for around 2,500 homes. A further 1,292 homes are proposed to be built in "greenfield urban extensions", including 600 homes at the Officer's Meadow site, 250 homes at Honeypot Lane in Brentwood and another 250 homes at Doddinghurst Road, also in Brentwood.

Planning expert Helen Stewart of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "This is a continuation in the growing trend of local authorities who are stepping up to the plate and recognising that the sequential and controlled utilisation of green belt land is an essential tool in their armament to face the housing crisis."

"By allocating green belt sites in their local plans and thus demonstrating a five year supply, councils such as Brentwood will retain ultimate control over housing development and mitigate against the risk of housing by appeal," said Stewart. "If its local plan is successfully adopted, Brentwood will have provided a useful benchmark for local authorities across the country with a similarly high percentage of green belt and who are seeking to demonstrate that constrained development opportunity is an exceptional circumstance which justifies release of the green belt."

Several councils have recently looked to the green belt to provide enough land for new homes. National planning policy allows sites to be removed from the green belt through the local plan process in 'exceptional circumstances'. A council in north west England last month removed nine sites from the green belt in its local plan and a Midlands council is consulting on plans to allocate 10% of is existing green belt for development.

The Council's public consultation on the draft plan begins tomorrow and ends on 23 March.