A Tale of Two Garden Villages

It has concerned me for some time that Colchester Borough Council seems to do very little to actively encourage employers to come to Colchester. When I first learned about the two garden villages they want to build, one east and one west of Colchester, I knew things would change in response to the employment needs of the tens of thousands of new people these 33,000 new homes would attract to our borough.
But no, nothing. No talk of new business parks, no household names being wooed to set up headquarter buildings here. Nothing.
So I went along to the full council meeting at the town hall last night to use my right as a resident to speak to our coalition council of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent councillors to get the answers I sought. Here is what I said:
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“The council has ambitions to build two large garden villages on the outskirts of Colchester. The larger of the two, at West Tey, is expected to be the size of Bury St Edmunds with 24,000 new homes which, combined with the 9,000 at the eastern garden village, will potentially create 33,000 new homes.
I am not here tonight to argue for or against them. I just want to ask one simple question.
Where are all the jobs going to come from?
At the recent Local Plan meeting Councillor Graham made it clear that people moving here to buy these homes would be very welcome. Which was jolly nice of him, but that’s potentially 60,000 or 70,000 people, so:
Where are all the jobs going to come from?
I have lived in this town nearly all my life and remember major employers like the Lathe Company, Woods, Paxmans, Betts, Royal London and others. They are all gone now and have never been replaced.
Yet here we are planning to build tens of thousands of new homes with not a new major employer in sight to absorb and expand to accommodate a massive influx of new residents.
Where are all the jobs going to come from?
More worryingly, and my concern here pre-dates these garden villages, I see little being done to attract companies to come here. Tens of thousands of people yes, but no new jobs. The council even made it very clear they don’t want the 600 or so jobs that Tollgate Village would create right on West Tey’s doorstep.
The Knowledge Gateway and a few business units in the garden villages and aren’t going to cut it. Where are the plans for new business parks? For science parks? Plans to attract a big hitter or two from the financial or tech sectors? Plans to attract and accommodate a couple of the country’s, or the world’s, big players to locate regional or national headquarters in our town?
Is this council really hoping to plough ahead with these plans to build two huge garden villages with no thought for where all these new people coming to our town will work?
Are we just going to crack on with building the houses and just suck it and see about the jobs? Is West Tey to be just a huge dormitory community of commuters catching the train to London, or heading up the A12 every day because we don’t have enough jobs for them, or the jobs they can find don’t pay enough?
Where is the vision?
Where is the plan?
And where are all the jobs going to come from?”
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Paul Smith, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, decided to be the one to reply to me and I readied myself for the onslaught of initiatives and plans he was about to dazzle me with. But they didn’t come.
Instead Mr Smith told me the town grew by 4,000 jobs last year, the Curzon Cinema is opening here. Lots of people are self-employed… eh?
And that was pretty much it bar telling me that 23,000 people leave Colchester each day to go to work, and 24,000 come to our town for their jobs. Or was it the other way round.
“But that 4,000 is natural growth Paul. You want to build 33,000 new homes. People will be coming here from all over the country to occupy them. That could potentially be tens of thousands of people needing many thousands of jobs.
Where are they all going to work?”
Well, that’s what I would like to have said, but the public don’t get a right of reply at council meetings.
But, you see, I think I get it. The council just wants the new homes and Paul Smith will get his legacy. Occupiers of the 9,000 new homes in east Colchester could arguably be well placed for jobs at the University, Severalls Industrial Estate, the new Knowledge Gateway, the town centre etc as well as dispersing to other areas for their work. Whether you oppose the development or support it, an argument can be made that this garden village, due to its location, will work even though its not what many people want.
But West Tey? Giant West Tey the size of Bury St Edmunds with a planned 24,000 homes and no economic case presented yet to justify it. With its proximity to Marks Tey station, the A12 and the A120 it is going to have enormous appeal to commuters. The council have said they do not want West Tey to become a dormitory community of commuters, but with no plans or vision to provide employment opportunities that is exactly what it looks like it will become.
The bottom line is that the council is rushing ahead with their ambitions to build both these garden villages with no plans whatsoever to add sufficient jobs to this town for the thousands of people who will move here. None at all.
Thank you Paul Smith for clarifying that your council plans to do absolutely nothing to build for our future and our children’s future.
