For further information of residents interested, please find below a copy of my response to an invitation to join a Local Planning Committee meeting with Colchester Borough Councillors on the Middlewick Ranges. Despite the difficulties caused by the decision to include the site in the Local Plan by the previous Colchester Borough Council administration, residents can rest assured that I will continue with my efforts to make the case to save the Middlewick Ranges for local residents, wildlife, and the environment.
'Thank you for your email containing an invitation from the Local Plan Committee to attend tonight’s meeting to discuss with me issues relating to the sale of the Middlewick Ranges site and the potential development of Middlewick.
I would like to apologise for the delay in responding.
If officers would like to brief me via email on the progress of the Committee in relation to this issue, I would be happy to receive this. However, it would have been inappropriate for me to attend this Local Plan Committee meeting as the issues discussed fall under the jurisdiction of the Local Planning Authority and I was perplexed as to why I was being asked.
As the Committee will no doubt be aware, the inclusion of the Middlewick Ranges in the Local Plan was voted through by the previous Colchester Borough Council administration. This specific issue is for the responsibility of the Local Plan Committee to discuss, and as an MP I have very limited powers on local planning matters because these fall within the remit of Local Authorities.
Despite the difficulties caused by the decision to include the site in the Local Plan by the previous administration, I have gone to great lengths over the years to do everything I can in my capacity as Colchester’s MP to avoid builsing on Middlewick Ranges, including, but not limited to, meeting with secretaries of state and other ministers from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Ministry of Defence (MOJ) to put across my case and that of residents for a Middlewick Country Park and the need to retain this valuable land for ecological and community benefit, submitting formal objections to the inclusion of Middlewick Ranges in the Local Plan and more recently to the Inspector’s Modifications to the plan, meeting with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), and much more.
I will continue with my efforts to make the case to save the Middlewick Ranges for local residents, wildlife, and the environment, and to this end I have arranged a further meeting with a Defence Minister in the near future to discuss this further, however, as you can understand, planning policy, including the decision to include the site in the Local Plan, is the responsibility of the Local Authority.
I thank the Committee once again for their invitation.'