Category: Planning Committee

Once again, we find our community blighted by illegal encampments. On Monday 29th January a group of caravans pitched up at the car park on Hannakins Farm Community Centre in West Billericay. Billericay West councillors were immediately in touch with Basildon Council officers and the Essex Countywide Traveller Unit (ECTU) and kicked off the whole…

Regular readers will recall that I was vehemently opposed to the 2014 application to build a solar farm covering over 26 hectares on Green Belt land off Outwood Farm Road in Billericay. This was granted permission by the Planning Committee, despite an officer recommendation to refuse and opposition from Billericay Town Council, Chelmsford City Council…

The Planning Committee considered an application to build seven flats at the current site of Elizabeth Cottage in Billericay High Street. Unfortunately, some of my old blogs were lost when I upgraded my website but regular readers will doubtless recall that the plight of Elizabeth Cottage is something that has been vexing me almost the…

As usual, I must apologise for the length of time it has taken me to write up the Annual Meeting of Basildon Council, which took place on Thursday 26th May, just over a week ago. It does sometimes take me a while to find the time to sit down and put pen to paper (or,…

This blog should start with an apology, as I realise it is my first one since November of last year. Happy belated New Year to you all and I hope you all had lovely Christmases. It means I did not write up the meeting of Full Council in December or January. I am not sure…

As I come to write up last Thursday’s meeting of Full Council, I would just ask readers to bear with me, as this was a mammoth SEVEN-HOUR meeting that went on until two o’clock in the morning. The meeting started at 7pm, earlier than usual, with a special Extraordinary Meeting to consider two nominations for…

As regular readers will know, I do not generally write up meetings of Basildon Council’s Planning Committee, but last week’s meeting held on Tuesday 30th June turned out to be an unusually controversial affair. Firstly, a bit of background on the new enlarged committee, which now has ten members: four Tories – Cllrs Carole Morris…

I don’t generally write up Planning Committee meetings but, as Tuesday night’s one has proved controversial and I’ve been getting lots of questions about it – both via e-mail and directed to me on social media – I thought it’d be simpler and easier to write it up for my website.  So here goes. For…

I have received enquiries from a number of you regarding the current situation with Elizabeth Cottage in Billericay High Street, at the junction of High Street and Norsey Road in Billericay East ward.

I just wanted to record some thoughts on last Thursday