Framework Consultation
Paul Peterson Yellow Advertiser 7 August 2008

A SEARCH for potential development sites across the district will be relaunched this month.
Basildon Council will be looking for ideas for development from residents, groups, businesses and developers.
   It comes just days after the local authority published a list of 270 site suggestions, which have been submitted by local people over the last 12 months.
   Tory councillor Tony Ball, cabinet member for planning, said the call for sites was a key part of ensuring that future development in the district is planned with care.
   He added: "We have a great responsibility not only to our residents who are the life of the community, and the businesses which we look to for our core prosperity, but also to future generations who want a secure and pleasant environment to live in."
   The 270 suggested sites and future suggestions will shape the council's Local Development framework (LDF), which sets out development in Basildon over the next 15 years.
   But council chiefs have stressed that any site selected as a future development location will be open to public consultation and residents will be fully involved.
   A council spokesman said: "The 270 sites have been put forward by people who do not own the land in question although this does not mean that there is any intention on the part of the owners to dispose of the land or that it will ever even be developed."
   Deputy leader of the opposition. Labour councillor Alan Davies. said the call for sites would be scrutnised.
   He added: "We are keen to ensure that any development in Basildon will be appropriate to the area."
   However, Mr Ball said that the council would face some hard choices and decisions about the future of the district. He added "The council's hands are often tied by tough Government legislation."
   Full details of the council's renewed call for site suggestions will be announced in the next few weeks.