A new community for Great Totham

The scheme is being delivered by Barratt David Wilson Homes, who are part of the Barratt Development Plc and has been building high quality homes for over 50 years.

They are a 5* quality award winning homebuilder, meaning over 90% of our customers would recommend us to a friend. What’s more, it makes them the UK’s most recommended housebuilder for the 15th consecutive year.

Furthermore, they have also won more NHBC Pride in the Job Quality Awards than any other housebuilder. In 2021, David Wilson Homes was named Sustainable Housebuilder of the Year.

As part of the proposals, Barratt David Wilson Homes is looking to deliver up to 170 high quality new homes and land for a medical/community centre alongside promoting sustainable living through significant public open green space and new pedestrian and cycle routes enhancing connectivity.

The delivery of these homes will contribute to meeting local housing need, including 40% designated as Affordable Housing. Additionally, through the land safeguarded for a new medical/community centre, the proposals will reserve land to support the local infrastructure of Great Totham as well as supporting the local economy through job creation.

We are at an early stage of the project; however, the development will be sensitively designed to respect and reflect the local area. Further information will be available at a later stage in the planning process.

The proposals include land for a new medical/community centre, helping improve the infrastructure offering of Great Totham.

The development will also deliver 40% affordable housing in line with Maldon District Council’s affordable housing policy and helping address local housing needs.

Maldon’s housing need has been calculated using the Government’s ‘Standard Method’ which takes into account existing housing stock and local affordability. The results mean that there is a significant unmet housing need in Maldon.

Given that this application is an Outline Planning Application it will establish the principle of development, with the detail on the exact house types coming forward through a Reserved Matters Application. The proposals will comprise a mix of house types to respond to local housing need with properties ranging from single/dual person dwellings to multiple person family homes.

There is a significant need for new affordable homes within the District. This site will deliver 40% Affordable Homes across a range of tenures to support those on lower incomes or those trying to get on the property ladder in the community.

The Government defines affordable housing as ‘social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market.’ This includes a variety of housing products including shared ownership, social rent, affordable rent, and discounted market rent.  40% will be Affordable Homes in line with Maldon District Council’s policy.

The 40% designated Affordable Homes are to meet local needs. We are looking at a range of innovative schemes.

The development is proposing to provide a wide range of different facilities and infrastructure improvements on and surrounding the site. This currently includes:

• Land reserved for a new medical/community centre.
• Onsite landscaping and play space improvements
• Enhanced connections to existing pedestrian and cycle pathways
• Significant contributions towards local infrastructure

The local educational authority (Essex County Council) will be consulted during the application process to identify whether there is capacity for new students. Should a need for additional facilities be demonstrated funding can be sought via the S106 agreement.

Dentists operate as private businesses, and it is not possible therefore for a developer to fund improvements via S106.

Essex County Council will assess the potential demand for new school places arising.  The development will then provide the agreed amount of funding as part of a S106 agreement.

This will be dependent on discussions and when it is determined whether the new medical/community centre is needed. It is currently expected that our planning application will reserve land for the medical/community centre and that a subsequent planning application for its detailed design would follow.

This is not within our direct control as Government has made telecoms utility companies responsible for the delivery of a network of broadband.

Parking will be delivered onsite in line with the policy requirements.

The site is within walking or cycling distance to a number of amenities within Great Totham including Great Totham Primary School, Great Totham Village Hall, Great Totham Cricket Club, The Bull & Willow Room, Forrester Park Swimming Pool, and Forrester Park Golf & Country Club.

Additionally, the site benefits from good public transport links including being in proximity to existing bus stop with services connecting Great Totham with Witham, Maldon, Tiptree and Colchester.

A Transport Assessment will be submitted with the planning application which will set out the transport strategy for the proposals in further detail. In addition, this report will include an assessment of the offsite transport, traffic and sustainable transport network impacts.

In addition, a Travel Plan will also be submitted with the application. This will set out details of measures that will be introduced to ensure sustainable travel is promoted from the very outset thereby reducing impact on the offsite highway network.

In order to take this application forward, these proposals will need to demonstrate there will be no undue impact on the local road network and any mitigation if required.

New pedestrian and cycle pathways will be delivered as part of the proposals, including connection to the Maldon Road cycle route, enhancing sustainable connectivity to the wider area and encouraging active travel.

Our proposed vehicular access point for the new development will be through the creation of a new access off Maldon Road to the north of the development.

Additionally, this access point will also provide access for pedestrians and cyclists, including a connection to the existing Maldon Road cycle route as well as the wider network of pedestrian and cycle routes, enhancing connectivity and reducing the reliance on cars for those living within the development.

The proposals follow a landscape-led approach, that retain and nurture existing vegetation, in addition to introducing significant new public open green space for new and existing resident to enjoy, including two play areas, designed to foster community activities and recreational opportunities. Key features include:

• Retention and enhancement of Bull Brook and associated trees within a landscape / ecological corridor.
• Protection of Spicketts Wood Ancient Woodland.
• General retention and enhancement of existing hedgerow.
• Enhance the open spaces by new planting of native tree species, scrub and wildflower meadow.
• Provision of publicly accessible amenity open space with leisure walking routes, potentially  Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG).
• The creation of new ‘naturalistic’ habitats which deliver ecological enhancement and biodiversity net gain above that of the previous agricultural field.
• A 10% biodiversity net gain.

All houses will have private garden spaces, and any apartments will have access to balconies/gardens/shared green spaces.

As part of the proposals, Barratt David Wilson Homes is proposing a couple of areas of play for children within the significant amount of open green space proposed.

Given that the site is not providing any onsite education facilities, subject to discussion with Essex County Council, it is likely that financial contributions from the development (via S106) will be required towards education in the area.

Barratt David Wilson Homes is committed to a sustainable development in Great Totham and will be engaging with the necessary design review panels and working to achieve long-term legacy for the site. All new homes will be highly energy efficient, adopting fabric first approach and with a specification to meet or exceed policy requirements.

Buildings will also be designed and specified to adapt to climate change: overheating will be managed through good design; the retention of existing trees and additional planting will provide more comfortable microclimates in warmer weather; the landscape design will provide multi-functional benefits, supporting increased biodiversity and enhancing the overall aesthetic.

The development with be gas-free, with air source heat pumps complemented with solar photovoltaic panels being utilised. Additionally, electric vehicle charging points will be provided to every new home with parking spaces in line with policy requirements.

The site is within walking distance to a number of existing facilities within Great Totham including Great Totham Village Hall, Great Totham Cricket Club, The Bull & Willow Room, Great Totham Post Office, Great Totham Stores, Great Totham Primary School, Forrester Park Golf & Country Club as well as existing public transport links such as bus stops which provide links to Tiptree, Maldon and Witham.

The site offers significant benefits in that it is close (in walking/cycling distance) to a wide variety of community facilities and amenities helping promote active travel and reducing the reliance on cars.

A planning application is likely to be submitted in April/May 2025.

An outline planning application is one where the details of the scheme, such as scale, vehicular access, orientation of the buildings, site elevation, pedestrian access, parking and drainage, are considered, establishing the principle of development. If approved, this means that the site can come forward for a detailed Reserved Matters planning application.

The development has not been agreed by the Council and currently has no planning permission. We are undertaking consultation on the proposals, prior to an application being submitted.

A Heritage Impact Assessment will be submitted as part of the application. The initial Historic Environment Desk Based Assessment has noted that there are no designated heritage assets on the site. There are two designated heritage assets which are potentially sensitive to the proposals, the village hall and the Bull and Willow Rooms pub. However, the development would have little impact on the setting of the pub, and although the village hall will be close to the proposed development, it does not derive historical significance from the view over the site – its relationship to the village is its key significance.

The available archaeological records, suggest that there is limited potential for prehistoric, Roman and early medieval period remains within the site. Historic mapping indicates that the study site continued to be in agricultural use through the medieval and post-medieval periods. Therefore, the potential for significant archaeological, non-agricultural, remains of post-medieval to modern date is considered to be low.

Section 106 agreements are legal agreements between a planning authority and a developer which secure the provision of appropriate financial contributions or other provisions related to a development, such as supporting transport infrastructure improvements, an element of affordable housing, community infrastructure, education, training initiatives, environmental improvements and corporate objectives, as well as to mitigate the impacts of development.

This is dependent on when the planning application is approved by Maldon District Council. At this early stage it is difficult to tell when exactly this will be and following that a Reserved Matters Application will need to be prepared and also approved by the Council.

However, the S106 agreement will put in place a timeframe to provide the infrastructure payments to the Council, which will be agreed with the Council before any construction can commence.

As this is an outline application, a detailed schedule of planting is not required. However, the proposed Landscape Strategy includes an indicative palette of mixed native trees, shrubs, hedgerows, grasses, and attenuation basin planting. These elements have been selected to reflect native species, ensuring that the landscape design aligns with the local ecological character. This indicative palette provides a framework for how a future detailed planting scheme may be developed within the developable area and the public open space to the east.

We are aiming to achieve a 10% gain in biodiversity on the site itself. If a 10% gain can’t be achieved within the site, we will be using off-site mitigation methods to ensure that 10% overall will be achieved.

It is likely that the majority of the public realm will be managed by a Management Company following the completion of the development. The exceptions being the main site junction with Maldon Road (adopted by ECC), the land for the medical/community centre (transferred to ECC), the affordable housing and its associated amenity space (transferred to a Registered Provider).

Yes, all on plot parking spaces will have EV charging points.

Yes, all new homes will have solar panels.

No. There is a requirement in planning policy to have no adverse impact off-site, and to allow for Climate Change impacts.

The proposals have been designed to effectively manage surface. The proposed surface water drainage strategy will use sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) to capture, control and release water generated on-site, back to pre-development greenfield rates.

The system is designed to manage severe weather that happens very rarely, such as 1-in-100-year storm event and to account for climate change.

The proposed SuDS features include a variety of storage options: attenuation basins, swales, and permeable paving to provide storage during rainfall events, treatment, amenity, and biodiversity benefits.

Yes, the drainage strategy will need to allow for Climate Change.