Middlewick Ranges: supporting sustainable growth for Colchester
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation, on behalf of the MOD, undertook public consultation in the summer of 2019 on some initial ideas on how 1,000 homes could be sensitively and suitably brought forward.
The Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) live firing range at Middlewick will relocate to Fingringhoe in 2021, at which point the site will become available to deliver much-needed new homes for Colchester.
Colchester Borough Council has allocated the site for 1,000 new homes in its emerging Local Plan, and this is being tested through the Examination in Public (EiP) process. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has developed an illustrative masterplan to show one way in which a sustainable new community could be created here to include a range of new homes and facilities with open green space for the public to enjoy.
Public consultation was undertaken in the summer of 2019 to seek people’s initial feedback on the DIO’s initial plans for the site and to understand what questions and comments people had, in order to help shape the best possible set of development proposals.
A number of detailed reports have been prepared by the project team to support the allocation of the site within the emerging Colchester Local Plan. You can find these on the Middlewick ranges consultation: technical documents page.
Although at this stage no planning application has been prepared, we would anticipate that an application would be developed following the adoption of Colchester Borough Council’s Local Plan.
If you have any questions about the content of this website or the proposals for Middlewick Ranges, you can contact the team via DIO-DEOPublicConsultation@mod.gov.uk.
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