Much needed new homes for Great Dunmow

The site is located to the North East of Great Dunmow. The site includes land on both sides of The Broadway (B1057).

Yes, the site is allocated in the Draft Local Plan. As part of the Great Dunmow indicative framework, the site is currently designated for around 715 homes, a primary school and a local centre.

The Local Plan defines the growth of housing and infrastructure in Uttlesford for the entire plan period. Without it, smaller, piecemeal developments may come forward which could generate fewer contributions and benefits for the community.

Great Dunmow is recognised as a key settlement in the Draft Local Plan to reflect the role it plays within Uttlesford as one of our three largest and most sustainable settlements.

It is important that growth within Great Dunmow is high quality and sustainable, and supports the delivery of new services, facilities and infrastructure to benefit the existing communities as well as new residents. The Local Plan enshrines these principles going forward and allows the Council and indeed the community to manage and shape development for the foreseeable future.

The current Draft Local Plan is being examined by an independent Planning Inspector. The Inspectors’ task will be to consider the soundness and legal compliance of the submitted Plan, based on the criteria set out in national planning policy.

At the end of the Examination, the Inspectors will prepare a report to the Council with precise recommendations, these recommendations may include modifications to the Plan.

The Planning Inspector’s final report recommends whether the council can adopt the plan. Once adopted, the Local Plan will be used to make decisions on all planning applications.

The adoption of the Local Plan is expected in approximately spring of 2026, although the timing of the examination is in the hands of the Planning Inspector.

The Government has identified a need for Uttlesford District Council (UDC) to provide a further 14,741 new homes between 2021- 2041. What’s more, the Government’s updated housing targets require Uttlesford to provide an additional 129 homes per year. UDC has identified this site as being one of those which is suitable to deliver those new homes through the draft Local Plan. Furthermore, currently, UDC is not meeting the government’s housing delivery requirements, and cannot demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply, which is required by national planning policy to ensure housing needs are being met. The result of this is increasing house prices, and a substantial shortfall of affordable housing, meaning many people cannot afford a home in Uttlesford.

To meet these important national requirements and ensure local people can afford to live within the district, Uttlesford needs to find more deliverable housing sites, such as this one, to be granted planning permission.

An Outline application is a planning application which agrees the principle of developing a site. The Outline application also defines some overall principles such as what the site will be used for (such as housing), the agreed access to the development and the general scale of the buildings.

The detail of the proposals, such as the design of the housing, the landscaping and the finished layout will be determined during one or multiple ‘Reserved Matters’ applications. These will be put forward by Gladman Developments at a later date, after the Outline Application has been granted planning permission.

This will ultimately be determined by the engagement work that is currently being conducted. The proposals currently include:

• Publicly accessible, landscaped greenspace (including designated Suitable Accessible Natural Greenspace)
• Improvements to local public transport networks
• A local centre which could feature new space for local businesses
• Habitat creation to produce a net gain in biodiversity on the site
• A Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) which will feature the creation of ecologically sensitive ponds and ensure surface water run off is restricted
• A range of high quality homes, including 35% affordable housing
• Land for a local primary school

Yes, the application will provide 35% affordable housing in line with the need of the draft Local Plan. The mix of unit type, size, and tenures will be agreed with Uttlesford District Council through the planning application process to ensure it best reflects local needs. The affordable housing will likely include a combination of social and affordable rent, affordable home ownership and shared ownership properties.

Affordable housing provides a range of options for people with different requirements. Affordable housing can mean social housing – such as council housing – which is managed by a registered housing provider. Other forms of affordable housing include shared ownership – where multiple owners can buy a share of a house and therefore pay less money to get on the property ladder. This opens up home ownership for a wider range of people than would have been able to previously. These affordable options are designed to allow different people to find the housing that suits them best.

Uttlesford District Council is seeing a rising housing need, with 1,461 households currently on the waiting list for council housing, an increase of 34% since 2019. The Council therefore needs to meet this by providing more council housing for existing residents, as well as a range of different affordable options. Developments like Land at the Broadway will help the Council meet their housing need and help reduce their housing waiting list.

These proposals will provide a range of affordable housing options which will be agreed with the Council before construction. This will potentially include a range of affordable tenures depending on what the Council believes is required for the local area.

These proposals will be providing S.106 contributions which are infrastructure payments agreed with the Council. Any infrastructure payments that the Council require will be assessed through dialogue with the developer through the planning process and will be agreed ahead of any construction.

S.106 payments can provide contributions to the following services:

• Affordable housing
• Local health services
• Open spaces including sports and play areas in the district
• Highways and public transport
• Recreational facilities
• Education

As with all our developments, we will be working closely with local councils, groups, and organisations to assess what the need is locally and how we can help address and deliver that.

We are committed to significant financial contributions to support the local community infrastructure such as healthcare, highways, and sustainable transport.

Gladman Developments is aware of the important historical buildings and sites located near the development site and a heritage impact assessment will be conducted as part of the application process.

This will ensure that key viewpoints towards important buildings can be preserved, and that the settings of listed buildings can be protected.

Gladman is conducting extensive assessments on the bridge at Church End to understand its current condition and whether any future improvements will need to be completed as part of this development. This will be submitted as part of the application and be included in the mitigation works for Great Dunmow.

It is intended to be used for recreational use, such as dog walking, jogging and outdoor play, as well as biodiversity enhancement and conservation.

We envision that the parkland will include biodiverse, landscaped walking routes, dedicated habitat areas, open spaces suitable for sports and ball games, and new children’s play areas.

The parkland will include a network of walking routes within natural open space, offering trails of up to 4 km in length. These paths will connect with existing public footpaths, creating extended walking options of up to 5 km and enhancing recreational opportunities for residents and the wider community.

A large area of natural public open space will encompass the development, providing both a scenic buffer to the landscape and a welcoming place for recreation. This will be provided in the form of amenity grassland for walkways and play parks, whilst also comprising wildflower planting, extensive tree planting and hedgerow planting to create natural linear features alongside wildlife ponds aiding biodiversity value within Great Dunmow.

It is part of Uttlesford Council’s planning policy to ensure that any site is sustainable and conforms with the council’s planning policies on sustainability, environmental protection and biodiversity.

This application will do this in a number of ways including (though not limited to):

• New habitats will be created which will result in a 20% biodiversity net gain
• Installation of electric vehicle charging points for more sustainable travel
• Latest building practices such as air source heat pumps and housing insulation to reduce heat loss. The Local Plan requires housing to be carbon net zero which means the housing needs to be ultra-low energy, fossil fuel free and generate renewable energy on-site
• Utilising modern construction to reduce carbon generation to protect the local environment

As part of the application, Gladman will appoint expert transport consultants to assess local transport movements on the site and in the surrounding area and will submit a transport assessment as part of the planning application which will detail how traffic impacts are to be minimised.

This will include assessments of current traffic trips and movements as well as projected trips based on the housing numbers and expected visitors to the site. The trips will be taken from existing roads that directly service this development, which will most likely be affected by this development.

Gladman developments will consult with Essex County Council – who are responsible for local highways – as part of this application to understand what mitigation is required. If a strategy is identified and agreed, then Gladman Developments will pay, as part of their infrastructure payments, to fund these improvements. This strategy will be submitted with the full application and will be available to review as part of the statutory consultation via Uttlesford Council’s planning portal.

As part of the transport assessment, the proposed access will be modelled with anticipated trips to and from the site with measures to demonstrate how the access will be properly managed and promote safe travel.

The site access will link onto the Broadway which will be assessed as part of the transport review and the planning application submission will demonstrate whether any mitigation is required based on the impact of the proposals on the local transport network.

Should this be the case, then Gladman Developments will work with Essex County Council to agree a transport solution to reduce any undue impact from this development on the local highways network.

As part of an outline application, Gladman Development will assess any existing and potential flood risk onsite.

A detailed flood risk assessment will be submitted as part of a future planning application and will identify any measures necessary to make sure that the development would not increase the risk of flooding on the site or elsewhere.

National policy requires us to improve upon surface water run-off rates compared to existing conditions, taking into account future climate change effects on rainfall.

Yes, as part of the outline application Gladman will conduct its own survey into local sewage capacity to check to see whether there is capacity in the existing network. Gladman will also work with Anglian Water to understand any improvements or capacity increases which Gladman need to provide or fund as part of this development.

This will also be confirmed once the application is submitted and Uttlesford Council will contact Anglian Water ahead of granting planning permission to confirm they are happy with the proposals.

As part of the consultation, Gladman Developments will review the application against the consultation feedback and will review the planning documentation ahead of the submission.

It is anticipated that the application will be submitted in early 2026.

The application will be available on the planning portal once validated where it will be consulted on by the Council. You can support the application by going to the Council’s planning portal and typing the application reference number or address into the search engine.

Alternatively, you can email us through info@thebroadway-gladmandevelopments.co.uk and provide your comments, and we will be in touch to explain how you can support this development further.