Colchester local election: Town 'creaking' from homes growth

Colchester, once the capital of Roman Britain, describes itself "Britain's oldest recorded town

A town's infrastructure is "creaking" under the pressure of housing development, politicians said as they prepare to battle in council elections.

Colchester, once the Roman capital of Britain, is one of the fastest-growing areas in the region and is part of plans for three "garden communities".

A third of the council's 51 seats are up for grabs on Thursday.

Candidates for Colchester Borough Council said housing has put pressure on health centres, schools and roads.

The Conservatives are a seat away from a majority which would overthrow the current "Rainbow coalition" - made up of Liberal Democrat, Labour and independent councillors.

The town is home to a growing university population of 8,000 students, as well as a military garrison of 4,000.

'Urban sprawl'

Original plans for garden communities would have seen 43,000 new homes built across Colchester and the neighbouring districts of Tendring and Braintree, however these have stalled after the government's planning inspectorate found the initial plans "unsound" in June.

The three sites along the A120 corridor are east of Colchester, west of Marks Tey and west of Braintree.

Darius Laws, Conservative group leader standing in Castle ward, said: "The problem is we have just built car-dependent urban sprawl.

"We need to look at key transport hubs like Colchester Town station, Hythe and Colchester North station.

"We need to say to developers that part of the conditions of building these sites is providing working infrastructure."

Politicians are concerned about the pressure increased housing development is putting on health facilities

Labour leader Tim Young, standing in Greenstead ward, said the garden communities projects were the best way to meet government housing targets in principle, but such schemes should be "infrastructure first".

He said: "There has got to be employment there in the communities so people aren't using cars to commute.

"They need to have green spaces and hopefully good public transport links so people don't have to rely on cars. Perhaps trams or guided buses [would be the answer]?"

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Mark Goacher, Green group leader standing in Castle ward, said: "We are very concerned about the extent of the development being planned and the sheer size of the garden settlements.

"Potentially 40,000 houses over a 30-year period is a population increase of 90,000 - that is way beyond the local need for housing the future children of Colchester.

"Clearly building on brownfield sites should happen first and after that you have to look at things like building higher."

Local parties are calling for more investment in public transport

Lib Dem group leader Mark Cory, the current council leader who is standing in Wivenhoe ward, said national government policy had put too much pressure to develop housing in the region.

He said: "Forcing more housing in our area, after already significant growth, is causing much pressure on creaking infrastructure.

"We are lobbying government to invest in infrastructure first. We will no longer take large numbers of houses without infrastructure upfront."

He added his party had listened to concerns over the size of the garden villages and would try to make them more manageable.