Thank you Richard, we just had someone email us the letter 10 minutes ago. Scope creep was our concern with UDC granting Ridgeons development permission for the whole site. It is clearly worrying as there is so much development going in on the east of Saffron Walden without UDC having any plan for infrastructure. We’ll put a team on it to look into it.

Turnstone estates Ltd they have submitted planning application to uttlesford district council for 55 more houses

BTW we can’t find any record of an additional 60 homes by Bloor on Ashdon Rd (we assume you mean on the Ridgeons’ site). There doesn’t seem to be anything in the UDC planning system. Do you have any more details or a planning application number?

R4U is the second biggest party at UDC. The Conservatives are the biggest party and so control all the committees and decisions. However we have 3 seats (which is 30%) on the Planning Committee. That allows us to make sure that issues are aired with respect to planning matters, but we can be outvoted when the Conservatives are whipped. We also have 2 seats on the Local Plan working group, where we can again try to make sure the right things are done. If we were elected to run the Council in 2019 we could change things about and make decisions with and for residents. But today as the second party, our role is to hold to account, expose where things are not being done right, support things that are being done right, and try to nudge policy decisions so that they align with our residents focused agenda. The key difference between us and Westminster parties, is that ultimately Westminster politicians work for their parties, not those that elected them. R4U was formed because people were tired of being ignored by local politicians of Westminster parties. We only have one boss, residents. They way to get a proper residents’’ agenda is to elect us to run UDC in 2019.

R4U agrees with you. Saffron Walden needs more infrastructure (roads, schools, etc.) before more homes are allowed and there needs to be a specific allocation of the ‘so called’ affordable home just for local people. Those are 2 of the things we’d like to see UDC adopt … BUT we don’t control UDC. It is a Tory run administration. They decide where the new homes get built and what to ask developers to cough up for. We think the Tory administration is doing a poor job of looking out for residents and their needs.