Discussions to build on wildlife haven began 6 months ago

Plans for homes and a business park on 86 acres of the wildlife haven and South Essex College site were announced last week, with a new college campus now set to be built in the town centre.

The Conservatives have been accused of a U-turn.

They were previously at the forefront of the Save Dry Street campaign to block the development of 1,200 homes at the Homes and Communities Agency-owned site, which was backed by more than 10,000 residents in 2006.

Naisha Polaine, the agency’s head of area, said the talks had started last year.

She said: “We began exploring options to enable the site with Basildon Council and South Essex College, after a new town centre college was identified as the council’s top priority in the local investment plan.

“Discussions were held in December 2010, before reaching the joint decision to move the site forward in May.

“This is a unique moment where three adjoining land-owning public organisations are coming together to provide much-needed education and housing for Basildon.”

Plans for a Basildon town centre college first emerged in 2007, when the Learning and Skills Council announced funding, which was later withdrawn.

Although Dry Street is largely green fields, it was designated a special reserve site for future housing in the 1990s.

Basildon’s Tories wanted to return it, and a similar site at Barn Hall, Wickford, into green belt, but a local plan enabling that to happen was scrapped in 2006.

Council leader Tony Ball, said there had been no conscious decision to abandon returning the sites to green belt.

He said the administration resigned itself to this after failing to stop the development of 200 homes at Barn Hall.

He said: “When we lost the Barn Hall appeal, it was clear we wouldn’t be able to revert Dry Street to green belt, but there was no announcement.”

He added: “It is about being involved and getting what is best for the borough because some development of the site is inevitable.”