Transport strategy for Easton Park and land east of Highway Quarry

SLR has been advising LandSec who are promoting an area of land to the east of Stansted Airport, the west of Great Dunmow and north of the A120 for a Garden Town to serve Uttlesford’s housing needs.

Solution

We have been devising an overall transport strategy to support the development of the Garden Town which focusses on sustainable transport. It includes:

•Creation of a new sustainable transport corridor between Stansted Airport and Great Dunmow serving the Garden Town

•Creation of walking and cycling routes in and through the scheme

•Influence the masterplan to create a new town with all of the day to day needs designed to promote sustainable transport

•Creation of a new access onto the A120

Easton Park was being proposed by Uttlesford District Council's draft Local Plan as a site suitable for development as a new community providing 10,000 homes, based on the Town and Country Planning Association's Garden City principles.

We worked as transport advisor and, following extensive work and discussions with stakeholders, the site was included in the in the previous draft Uttlesford Local Plan for 10,000 units with associated community facilities and significant employment.

Alongside this, SLR acted as transport advisors on an application for a 1st Phase of development on a parcel within Easton Park Estate called Land East of Highwood Quarry. This application for a 1st Phase of 1,200 homes was recently granted at appeal and SLR acted as expert transport witness for the site.

Impact

For the Garden Town, we considered in detail the location of the site and in particular its proximity to the largest employer in the region, Stansted Airport, recommending a dedicated sustainable link to this major transport hub. This, along with the facilities available in Great Dunmow, influenced the transport strategy.

We also undertook an assessment of the highway network and access requirements that have been agreed in principle by Essex County Council.

For the 1,200 planning application we identified an access and movement strategy which sought to balance early delivery of the site whilst futureproofing for the new Garden Town. This was a challenging appeal but was successful in 2023.