Supporting sustainable development in Great Baddow

The site is located to the east of Great Baddow on underutilised scrub land. The site is to the west of the A1114. It is located to the south of Baddow Hall Primary School’s playing fields and to the east of the Great Baddow Telephone Exchange. Church Street is to the south of the development site.

The site is not allocated in the Local Plan. However, Great Baddow, forms part of the Chelmsford Urban Area, which is identified within the Council’s adopted Local Plan. The site is in relatively close proximity to a wide range of shops, services and infrastructure capable of meeting the day-to-day needs of residents. The facilities, including local shops, nursery, schools, doctors, sports facilities and bus services, are within walking distance of the proposals, which help demonstrate that the site is in a sustainable location.

Furthermore, Chelmsford City Council is currently reviewing its Local Plan to increase its existing housing numbers. Therefore, Martin Grant Homes believes that Great Baddow is a sustainable location to develop and is submitting this application to help support Chelmsford City Council in meeting this target.

The Government has identified a need for Chelmsford City Council to provide an increased number of homes per year compared to previous housing requirements as per its updated housing targets. This has in turn constituted a significant increase in the need for additional housing provision.

Currently, Chelmsford City Council is not meeting the government’s housing delivery requirements, and cannot demonstrate a 5-year land supply, which is required by national planning policy to ensure housing needs are being met. The result of this is increasing house prices, and a substantial shortfall of affordable housing, meaning many people cannot afford a home in Chelmsford.

To meet these important national requirements and ensure local people can afford to live within the district, Chelmsford needs to find more deliverable housing sites, such as this one, to be granted planning permission.

An Outline application is a planning application which agrees the principle of developing a site. The Outline application also defines some overall principles such as what the site will be used for (such as housing), the agreed access to the development and the general scale of the buildings.

The detail of the proposals, such as the design of the housing, the landscaping and the finished layout will be determined during one or multiple ‘Reserved Matters’ applications. These will be put forward by Martin Grant Homes at a later date, after the Outline Application has been granted planning permission.

At this stage, the proposals currently include:

• Market Housing: The delivery of approximately 45 new homes capable of meeting local housing needs, at a time when the Council have an acknowledged shortfall in housing supply.
• Affordable housing: 50% provision of affordable homes to help address the significant under supply of affordable accommodation across the city.
• New public open space: Significant new public open spaces, including amenity space, walking routes, landscaping and natural/semi-natural green space.
• Biodiversity: The delivery of a soft landscaping and planting scheme which will be subject to an ongoing management and maintenance regime. These proposals will deliver ecological enhancements and as a whole the planning application will deliver at least 10% biodiversity net gain.
• Public Transport: Subject to confirmation from Essex County Council: Highways during the Council’s future determination of the planning application, a potential financial contribution towards enhancing public transport in the local area.

Yes, the application will provide 50% affordable housing which is significantly higher than the 35% threshold outlined in Chelmsford City Council affordable housing strategy.

The mix of unit type, size, and tenures will be agreed with Chelmsford City Council through the planning application process to ensure it best reflects local needs. The affordable housing will likely include a combination of social and affordable rent, affordable home ownership and shared ownership properties.

Affordable housing provides a range of options for people with different requirements. Affordable housing can mean social housing – such as council housing – which is managed by a registered housing provider. Other forms of affordable housing include shared ownership – where multiple owners can buy a share of a house and therefore pay less money to get on the property ladder. This opens up home ownership for a wider range of people than would have been able to previously. These affordable options are designed to allow different people to find the housing that suits them best.

Chelmsford is seeing a rise in need for affordable housing, with 1,510 households currently sitting on Chelmsford’s housing waiting list. The Council needs to unlock new sites which provide affordable housing which will ultimately add more affordable housing stock and reduce waiting lists in Chelmsford.

These proposals will provide a range of affordable housing options which will be agreed with the Council before construction. This will potentially include a range of affordable tenures depending on what the Council believes is required for the local area.

These proposals will be providing S.106 contributions which are infrastructure payments agreed with the Council. Any infrastructure payments that the Council require will be assessed through dialogue with the developer through the planning process and will be agreed ahead of any construction commencing.

S.106 payments can provide contributions to the following services:

• Affordable housing
• Local health services
• Open spaces including sports and play areas in the district
• Highways and public transport
• Recreational facilities
• Education

The affordable housing will also be pepper potted across the scheme, to avoid stark contrasts with the private housing.

As with all our developments, we will be working closely with local councils, groups, and organisations to assess what the need is locally and how we can help address and deliver that.

We are committed to significant financial contributions to support the local community infrastructure such as healthcare, highways, and sustainable transport.

It is part of Chelmsford City Council’s planning policy to ensure that any site is sustainable and conforms with the council’s planning policies on sustainability, environmental protection and biodiversity.

This application will do this in a number of ways including (though not limited to):

• New habitats will be created which will result in a 10% biodiversity net gain.
• Installation of electric vehicle charging points for more sustainable travel.
• Latest building practices such as air source heat pumps and housing insulation to reduce heat loss.

As part of the application, Martin Grant Homes has commissioned WSP transport consultants to assess local transport movements on the site and in the surrounding area and will submit a transport assessment as part of the planning application which will detail how traffic impacts are to be minimised.

This will include assessments of current traffic trips and movements as well as projected trips based on the housing numbers and expected visitors to the site. The trips will be taken from existing roads that directly service this development, which will most likely be affected by this development.

The development would be approximately a 10 minute walk from High Street and its services, as well as a short walk to Baddow Hall School to the north (via The Bringey). It is therefore anticipated that the proposals would encourage sustainable travel opportunities to be utilised, which therefore would reduce the need for vehicular travel and congestion impacts thereafter.

In terms of managing local speeds, it is proposed that the existing 30mph zone be extended further eastwards to the sites eastern boundary, therefore providing a more attractive urban environment. The existing vehicle speeds in the vicinity of the site access have been observed and it has been agreed with Essex County Council that sufficient visibility is provided.

As part of the transport assessment, the proposed access will be modelled with anticipated trips to and from the site with measures to demonstrate how the access will be properly managed and promote safe travel.

Access to the site will be provided via a new priority junction from Church Street, with the existing footway along the northern edge of the road connecting directly into the development to support safe pedestrian movement.

The scheme incorporates an internal street network alongside indicative pedestrian and recreational routes that sustainably links the new homes with areas of the proposed public open space, Church Street and surrounding local amenities, reducing the need for private vehicles and promoting active travel.

Martin Grant Homes will work with Essex County Council to agree a transport solution to reduce any undue impact from this development on the local highways network.

As part of the application, Martin Grant Homes will assess any existing and potential flood risk onsite.

A detailed flood risk assessment will be submitted as part of a future planning application and will identify any measures necessary to make sure that the development would not increase the risk of flooding on the site or elsewhere.

National policy requires us to improve upon surface water run-off rates compared to existing conditions, taking into account future climate change effects on rainfall.

Yes, as part of this outline application, Martin Grant Homes will conduct its own survey into local sewage capacity to check to see whether there is capacity in the existing network. Martin Grant Homes will also work with Essex & Suffolk Water to understand any improvements or capacity increases which Martin Grant Homes need to provide or fund as part of this development.

This will also be confirmed once the application is submitted and Chelmsford City Council will contact Essex & Suffolk Water ahead of granting planning permission to confirm they are happy with the proposals.

As part of the consultation, Martin Grant Homes will review the application against the consultation feedback and will review the planning documentation ahead of the submission.

It is anticipated that the application will be submitted in late 2025.

The application will be available on the planning portal once validated where it will be consulted on by the Council. You can support the application by going to the Council’s planning portal and typing the application reference number or address into the search engine.

Alternatively, you can email us through info@stg-smithersdrive1245-stage.kinsta.cloud and provide your comments, and we will be in touch to explain how you can support this development further.