Issues and Options

9 Connected Places and Delivering Infrastructure

9.1 The adopted Local Plan contains two chapters that discuss connectivity (specifically sustainable travel, the transport network, and telecommunications) and delivering infrastructure. Many of the issues relevant to these policies have been discussed in previous chapters in the document.

9.2 The Council understands that the delivery of new homes and jobs needs to be supported by necessary infrastructure, including a wide range of transport options, utilities, and community facilities. As part of the Local Plan review, the Council will commission an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP), which will sit alongside the Local Plan and provide specific details on the main items of infrastructure required for larger development, when they are likely to be provided and who will pay for them.

9.3 The broad categories of necessary infrastructure that will be covered in the IDP include:

• Water and drainage - water supply, wastewater, flood risk management and resilience, and water quality.
• Energy - electricity, gas and renewable energy.
• Communications - broadband coverage and provision.
• Leisure and green infrastructure - sport, open space and community facilities.
• Education - early years and childcare, primary, secondary, further education, and higher education.
• Health - hospitals, health centres, GP surgeries, dentists, public health and preventative health care.
• Transport - highways, cycle and pedestrian facilities, rail, bus, park and ride, travel management and car parking.

9.4 Infrastructure and community facilities are mainly provided by partner agencies and service providers, such as water and energy provision by the utility companies; highways and social services by Essex County Council; education by a range of public and private sector providers; healthcare services and facilities by NHS bodies. The IDP will need to identify the different investment and development time scales for these providers, allowing us to work with them to help deliver a co-ordinated approach to new infrastructure delivery. Developers are expected to contribute towards providing appropriate infrastructure, including both on-site costs and strategic off-site infrastructure costs.

9.5 A resilient, reliable, efficient, and safe transport network that provides for the movement of people and goods is necessary to support development, improve productivity, enable economic growth and allow everyday activity. Essex County Council, which is the highway and transportation authority, is seeking to decarbonise the transport network and deliver a step change in sustainable travel across the county, by growing passenger transport and active travel; and by supporting the move towards net zero, climate resilient developments, including new garden communities, and by delivering well connected neighbourhoods for the future.

9.6 The planning system can help to actively manage patterns of growth by focussing on locations which are or can be made sustainable, through offering a genuine choice of transport modes and supporting good design. This will contribute to reducing congestion and emissions and improving air quality and public health. The location and design of developments and how well active travel and public transport services are integrated influences the opportunity for short journeys to be made on foot, cycle or by public transport, helping to reduce transport impacts.

9.7 Everyone needs to have access to transport infrastructure to participate in the economy. Transport investment is essential to:

• improve business efficiency, notably by travel time savings, improving journey time reliability and travel quality;
• stimulate business investment and innovation by supporting economies of scale and new ways of working;
• agglomerate economies bringing firms closer (in space or time) to other firms or workers in the same sector;
• improve labour market efficiency, enabling firms to access a larger labour supply, and wider employment opportunities for workers and those seeking work;
• create business confidence in the long-term capacity of the local area to accommodate their strategic ambitions;
• increase competition by opening access to new markets, principally by integration of world markets; and
• increase domestic and international trade by reducing trading costs.

9.8 To respond positively to new ways of working, contribute to addressing the impacts of climate change and to provide less car orientated places, transport planning is shifting towards a vision lead approach which helps to create places for people, built around a healthy, safe, prosperous and carbon neutral vision for our new communities. It will consider the relationship between travel patterns and behaviour, broader land use, digital and energy systems.

9.9 In recent years, major improvements in computer and mobile phone technology have radically changed the way business is carried out and how people shop, learn, and socialise. Many more people choose to work from home since the pandemic, and communications technology has become essential for businesses and a fundamental part of everyday life. Telecommunications and digital infrastructure technologies are evolving rapidly, and developers will need to ensure that new development is provided with access to up-to-date, high quality digital infrastructure including fibre and wireless services.

9.10 The Council will need to consider whether its policies are up to date and compliant with national planning policy, and it may be necessary to update policies in these chapters to ensure they reflect most recent guidance and best practice about infrastructure provision in new developments.