{"id":756478,"date":"2026-09-01T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T08:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/756478\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T08:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T08:38:09","slug":"sawbridgeworth-unauthorised-development-fought-off-by-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/756478\/","title":{"rendered":"Sawbridgeworth unauthorised development fought off by residents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sawbridgeworth is a popular commuter town near the Essex border, which made headlines in 1999 when<a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/england\/2397949.stm\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> David and Victoria Beckham bought their mansion,<\/a> dubbed Beckingham Palace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The town sits on the River Stort, which runs past the field in question, just off Sheering Mill Lane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Residents said the area was rich in wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There are lots of birds, lots of reptiles, you&#8217;ve got crested newts, apparently badgers, muntjac deer &#8211; but it&#8217;s all gone,&#8221; said Liz Coxhall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Neil Leighton, 56, runs a handyman business and has lived locally for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We walk round here a lot: It&#8217;s a really nice area, it&#8217;s very green, you can see the canal,&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sawbridgeworth&#8217;s mayor, Angus Parsad-Wyatt, told the BBC: &#8220;It is important to say this is a flood plain, a nature reserve, a wildlife area and, so, this is not just about travellers moving into a site and a random piece of field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is a part of the town that everyone really cares about.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sawbridgeworth is a popular commuter town near the Essex border, which made headlines in 1999 when David and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-756478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756478","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=756478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}