Call for Sites and Strategic Land Availability Assessment
The new Local Plan is required to allocate sites to meet the housing, employment and other needs of the district. To better understand the availability of sites for allocation, the council undertook a 'call for sites' in the winter/spring of 2021. This was open to site promoters, town and parish councils, residents and others to submit sites to the Council for consideration. For the first time, the Council also asked for 'green sites' to be submitted to the Council.
An interactive map containing basic details for the 299 submitted sites is now available here. Please refer to the 'Map Notes' at the bottom of this page before interpreting the information.
The Council will consider these sites, alongside any that the Council chooses to identify, when developing the Local Plan. No decision has been taken at this stage on which sites to include in the Local Plan.
The sites will be assessed over the summer, and a technical consultation for town and parish councils will be carried out in the autumn to help ensure that factual information for each site is correct. The draft (Regulation 18) Local Plan is scheduled for consultation in March 2022.
Decisions on which sites to allocate will be based on the strategy that the Council is developing at the moment. As part of this process, the Council agreed a draft vision and objectives at Cabinet on 27 May 2021. This will ensure the Local Plan is 'strategy-led' and not 'developer-led'.
Map Notes
- Upon opening the map, you may find that it is zoomed out. To zoom in, either use the + button in the top-left corner or scroll using your mouse. Alternatively, you can zoom into a specific address by typing a post code into the search bar in the top-left corner.
- Sites have been referenced according to the format, [Parish] [Unique three-digit number] [Predominant use]. The 'predominant use' (RES - Residential; EMP - Employment; COM - Community; MIX - Mixed use; OTH - Other) should be treated as indicative at this stage because the proposed uses will be reviewed during the site assessment process.
- Some of the details will be subject to change during the assessment process. For example, the submitted figures for site area and capacity have not yet been verified.
- The site boundaries have been mapped using information submitted by the site promoters. The accuracy of the submitted information varies so, in some cases, we have had to make a judgment as to the precise boundary. If you notice any errors, please let us know by emailing localplan@uttlesford.gov.uk (include 'Call for sites boundary error' in the Subject line).