• Draft Plan Consultation Starts on Monday 14th March

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    Members of the public and stakeholders can have their say on a Draft Plan (or Development Plan Document) for the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community (TCBGC), following approval from members of the TCBGC Joint Committee for a public consultation. The consultation will start on Monday 14 March and will run for six weeks, concluding on Monday 25 April, at 5pm.

    The Draft Plan for the TCBGC contains policies, visions, and a preferred masterplan layout option for the development. The policies in the Draft Plan include: Development at the Garden Community; Land Uses and Spatial Approach; Community and Social Infrastructure; Buildings, Places and Character; Economic Activity and Employment; Movement and Connections; Sustainable Infrastructure; Nature; and Infrastructure Delivery and Impact Mitigation.

    Residents and stakeholders are being invited to comment on the Draft Plan during the consultation period. Once the consultation ends, the Councils will look at every comment received and consider what updates need to be made as they work towards the final version of the Plan.

    The final version of the Plan will then go out for another consultation at the end of 2022, before it is submitted to the Secretary of State for consideration in an ‘Examination in Public’ in 2023. Once the Plan is formally adopted by the Councils in 2023, any future planning applications to develop the Garden Community must conform to the policies set out in the Plan.

    Tendring District Council’s Cllr Nick Turner, Chairman of the TCBGC Joint Committee said “The Draft Plan for the Garden Community has been produced following a large programme of engagement with the community and stakeholders. It sets out our clear ambitions to make this community an exemplary place to live, with plenty of green space, along with the protection of existing settlements in the area. Please share your comments on our Draft Plan as your input is really important to us.”

    Colchester Borough Council’s Cllr Paul Dundas, Deputy Chairman of the TCBGC Joint Committee said “It’s really important that we get our plans right for the Garden Community. It needs to be a development that brings benefits to our residents and local area and it’s vital that to make it succeed we reflect what local people want to see in the new Garden Community. While this won’t be the only opportunity to comment on the plans, I would urge as many people as possible to take the time to read the proposals and comment on them.”

    Cllr Lesley Wagland, Cabinet Member for Economic Renewal, Infrastructure and Planning at Essex County Council added "The formation of the joint committee of Colchester, Tendring and Essex Councils marks an important step in progressing the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community. I’m very pleased to be part of this Committee, with my ECC colleague Cllr Tom Cunningham, which is the first of its kind in Essex. I'd urge as many people as possible to share their comments on our Draft Plan, to help us all shape the future of North Essex".

    The Draft Plan, comment forms and all supporting documentation, can be viewed online at talk.tcbgardencommunity.co.uk. For anyone without internet access a Freepost address is available. Residents should write to Freepost TCB GC for more information.

  • Engagement Activity Update - May 2021

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    What’s next in our engagement?

    Thank you to everyone who has shared their thoughts and ideas with us via our ‘Give us your ideas’, ‘Vision of the Future’ and ‘Three words on what’s important to you’ tools so far.

    What we’ve seen so far is going to help shape our next stage of engagement, which is coming up in the summer. This stage will look at what vision and objectives we all see for this Garden Community.

    In this stage of engagement, we’ll close the ‘Vision of the Future’ and ‘Three words on what’s important to you’ tools. However, the ‘Give us your ideas’ tool will stay open and we hope you’ll carry on adding new ideas and ‘ ’ the ones you like.

    This stage of engagement will look at things in a bit more detail. Looking at the ideas we’ve had submitted so far, we’ll group important topics together under a set of themes, and start to ask you more specific questions on those themes. The results of these questions will help to evolve our thinking further.

    After that, we will carry out more engagement activity looking at the vision and objectives for the Garden Community. This will involve; themed surveys and other activities on our engagement website; hosting virtual workshops with community groups and key stakeholders; and discussions with our new Community Liaison Group and Youth Liaison Group, among other activity.

    The main messages from this activity will then be summarised into a report, which will help shape a second phase of engagement in the autumn. This phase of engagement will refine the vision for the Garden Community and lead into options for how the Garden Community layout could look.

    We’ll keep you updated on this timeline of activity. And, please keep the ideas coming!

  • Community and Youth Liaison Groups Update - April 2021

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    Thank you to everyone who submitted applications to be on our Youth Liaison Group and Community Liaison Group.

    Applications closed on Wednesday 7th April 2021, and were submitted directly to our independent engagement support specialists Community Regen in accordance with the process set out in the Information Packs alongside the request for applications.

    A selection process was undertaken to identify which applicants would be invited to the Liaison Groups and to ensure a fair process, the applications were anonymised and sent to an Independent Selection Panel. The panel was made up of local volunteers, external to the Councils, for review and they met to discuss all of the anonymised applications and make their selections for both groups.

    We are pleased to announce that as a result of the process, ten applicants have been selected to create the Community Liaison Group. There were fewer applicants for the Youth Liaison Group, with an initial two members selected, and an intent to attract additional members later in the year.

    The new groups will meet in late April to say hello, and over the next few meetings the groups will work with our independent engagement specialists to form their own Terms of Reference and work towards electing a Chairperson for each group (from the membership in each group).

    The Liaison Groups will be one mechanism through which the public will be engaged in the process of evolving the ideas for the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community. As set out in our Engagement & Consultation Strategy there will be a variety of other ways local people, interested groups and other stakeholders will be able to get involved and provide feedback, such as; through this website; briefings for important representative bodies such as local town/parish councils; and workshops for particular stakeholders, among other activity.

    You can see the original application information packs and the selection criteria used by the Independent Selection Panel in the 'Useful Documents' published in this news section.

    We look forward to working with the new Liaison Groups, alongside all other activity, and are pleased to welcome as below:

    Community Liaison Group

    Fern Lovett

    Claudia Alsdorf

    Lucas Carroll

    Benjamin Marlow

    Manda O'Connell

    Peter Hill

    Mark Woodgate

    Michael Lucking

    Pauline Scott

    Christopher Burns


    Youth Liaison Group

    Lois Whitnell

    Frank Howard