Stansted’s long-awaited health centre received tentative planning approval last week. The 4-5 storey building in Lower Street, still the subject of much division within the village over its inclusion of residential apartments and a retail floor, was approved without an answer being given to how its users will park their cars and delivery vehicles. There is also concern at the knock-on effect on other local businesses, shops and Mounfitchet Castle tourist attraction.

This was despite that title of the application including: Construction of building to accommodate Class A1 retail space, Class D1 medical centre and 14 no. Class C3 residential apartments, with dedicated off-site parking spaces…..Reconfiguration of public car park to provide 179 no. car parking spaces and 8 no. coach spaces.

I was on holiday last week, so missed Wednesday’s planning committee. My representation was read for me by Cllr Janice Loughlin. I am told she read it well, for which I am grateful, but several members of the public present were as dissatisfied with the overall conduct of the meeting as they were with the outcome. I am looking into their concerns.

The applicant, Pelham Structures Ltd. for Hilton Group, do not yet have final permission. They still have to sign an agreement about parking that will be drawn up by the planners. So the biggest outstanding issue, instead of being sorted out before the planning committee met, has to be sorted out afterwards. I find this bizarre. The issue has been avoided by Uttlesford for months; so blatantly side-stepped that Stansted Parish Council commissioned its own study on the matter. It was largely ignored again last week as members were told to give approval in the hope that parking could be sorted out later. Planning at Uttlesford should take the opportunity to improve its public relations and not repeatedly quote technical process as an excuse for appearing insensitive to public concerns.

I have appended an assessment of car park capacity as well as the two plans for revised car park layout and capacity; the first submitted with the planning application and the second floated informally last month. The existing car park layout can also be viewed.