Chelmsford City Council has updated the local plan which calls for an additional 7966 homes above the already adopted plan. Chelmsford City Council has come up with several options, which affect many areas around the city and the surrounding villages including Little Baddow.

Option E in particular affects Little Baddow. See the above map with the area in red showing the proposed site. It proposes a new settlement of 4,000 homes to be built at Hammonds Farm in the parish of Little Baddow and gives scant regard to the devastating effect this will have on the surrounding area and the infrastructure required to sustain a settlement of this size. We are currently in a consultation period and comment must be received by 20th October, however, Chelmsford City Council has made it particularly difficult to find out information and voice your concerns (whether this is by design or by mistake we can't be sure). With this petition, we will ensure that your voices are heard. 

Hammonds Farm is approx. 1100 acres highlighted in red on the above map. The initial proposal is for 4000 houses "Approach E", however, there is space and scope to build up to 12600 houses which we fully expect to happen over the coming years if this gets the green light.

Not only will this decimate the village of Little Baddow, Sandon, Great Baddow and Boreham, it seems little thought has been given to the infrastructure required for such a settlement. Other issues are:  

• A12 already at capacity has no room for a further 8000 cars (two per household).
• The surrounding roads (single lanes with passing places) in general cannot handle this increased traffic.
• There is no integration with Chelmsford as this will be a new standalone settlement
• It will be difficult to sustain as a satellite as there is no infrastructure, buses/train services and all travel will need to be by car.
• There will be a massive heritage impact on the Chelmer Valley with the aesthetics in what is a Water meadow and Flood plain ruined forever.
• Broomfield Hospital is unable to cope with current demand and this will bring increased pressure
• Doctors, Dentists, and other services are currently unable to cope.

Please support us by signing this petition, below is a draft objection you can use to copy/paste in the comments box. It is imperative that you do leave a comment otherwise your name will not be counted. 

Sample Objection Comment (please cut and paste into the comments box)

Dear Sir/Madam

Chelmsford City Council Local Plan Review

I wish to make it known that I/we object strongly to the proposed Approach E on the Spatial Strategy Approaches.

My objections are the following

Insufficient infrastructure to support this development

The A12 corridor at junctions 18 and 19 are already congested and involves long tailbacks.  The A12 is already at full capacity and cannot support a further 8000 vehicles entering and leaving at the above junctions.

The A12 forms a natural barrier between Chelmsford City and rural Essex

The development is planned on land which is a water meadow and a flood plain – ensuring any housing development will in the future encompass catastrophic problems with substandard housing, which may impede property prices.

The decimation of the Chelmer Valley area of outstanding natural beauty.  This vista will be lost forever.

Increased pressure on Broomfield hospital.

Approach E is the least desirable option as it is all flood plain and water meadow, it would be isolated from Chelmsford with poor transport links and has a major environmental impact on the Chelmer valley

Integration of approaches A and B, where transport links and infrastructure are already in place would be a more cost-effective route.