The residential-led grey-belt scheme for developer City & Country, submitted last week (6 November), features new homes plus amenities and transport improvements on a site north of Birchanger and south of Stansted Mountfitchet, near Stansted Airport.<\/p>\n
Split across two sites on mainly agricultural farmland, the new homes will provide one to six-bedroom units, half of which are earmarked as affordable through rent or affordable ownership. The remainder will be for private sale.<\/p>\n
FCBS and City & Country say this exceeds the local authority requirement of 40 per cent affordable housing while addressing the needs of 1,400 households on the council\u2019s housing waiting list.<\/p>\n
A shop, caf\u00e9, nursery and care home are also featured in the plans to service the new homes.<\/p>\n
The scheme will introduce pedestrian and cycle routes to Stansted Mountfitchet station and local schools. It will also improve highway junctions on the B1383 and add new pedestrian crossings to the existing bus stops.<\/p>\n
Some farmland between the two sites will remain in agricultural use, the project team says, alongside plans for a \u2018habitat bank\u2019 and the reinstatement of historic woodland and hedgerows lost over time to agricultural uses.<\/p>\n
\u2018We want to showcase how grey-belt land can be put to best use\u2019<\/p>\n
Under the proposals, the developments will each achieve a biodiversity net gain of at least 20 per cent while meeting the definition of \u2018grey belt\u2019 in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), of \u2018land in the green belt comprising previously developed land and\/or any other land that, in either case, does not strongly contribute\u2019 to it.<\/p>\n
City & Country design and planning director Simon Vernon-Harcourt said: \u2018Our aim is to showcase how grey-belt land can be put to best use through exemplar design and provision of significant infrastructure improvements, including an extensive network of new pedestrian and cycle routes on land between the proposed development sites.<\/p>\n
\u2018These proposals will protect and enhance the surrounding ecological landscape and biodiversity while creating a sustainable neighbourhood that will complement the existing community.<\/p>\n
\u2018Placemaking and quality design and architecture have been at the forefront of our proposals, which have evolved during an involved consultation process with stakeholders and the public.\u2019<\/p>\n
FCBS partner Marcus Rothnie described the scheme as \u2018a rare opportunity to shape a new neighbourhood that is deeply rooted in its landscape and local identity.<\/p>\n
\u2018At a time of increasing pressure to deliver more housing, our focus is on ensuring a quality-led response \u2013 one that balances the urgent need for new homes with a commitment to design excellence, sustainability, and a strong sense of place.\u2019<\/p>\n
City & Country acquired the 71ha site in 2024.\u00a0A timeline for completion has yet to be set out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The residential-led grey-belt scheme for developer City & Country, submitted last week (6 November), features new homes plus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-257153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}