The Billericay Design Statement Association

The Inaugural General Meeting of the BDSA, initiated by Billericay Town Council, took place in March 2007.  A Steering Group, comprising residents as well as representatives from the Billericay District Residents’ Association and other Billericay organisations and societies, was appointed. A Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary were elected. 

Since then the Steering Group has devoted its efforts to two essential aspects of a Design Statement:

Ø      Preparing a written description of Billericay, supported by appropriate illustrations, largely in terms of the town’s built environment and its setting in the surrounding countryside

Ø      A public consultation programme, via a series of road shows at various venues around the town, to obtain the community’s views on how they see the town today and how they wish it to develop in the future.  The road shows consisted of a series of display panels which explained the concept and rationale of Design Statements, and used a Questionnaire to canvass visitors’ opinions.These two primary tasks are now nearing completion.   

The text of the descriptive sections or chapters of the Design Statement is at an advanced stage and amounts to more than 25000 words in draft form.  It is being edited to produce a coherent and consistent document.   

The results of the first public consultation about the current state of the town and its future direction are as follows:

v      811 questionnaires returned (about 15% of those distributed), expressing 34563 opinions

v      5007 comments under 268 headings obtained via questionnaires and notes posted on exhibition panels

Preservation of the surrounding Green Belt and open spaces within the town, conservation of the historical nature of the town centre, the growing number of restaurants, and the generally poor state of roads and footpaths, are major issues emerging from our initial analysis.

The Next Stage

The first public consultation generated a large amount of data covering a myriad of complaints about Billericay, plus hopes and fears for its future.  An important outcome is that most people regard Billericay as a nice place to live, and think that the town has a distinctive character which must be protected against ill-conceived or insensitive changes.  Indeed, a number of respondents expressed their aversion to the unfortunate buildings constructed in the High Street during the sixties. 

With community feedback now available, the next priority for the Steering Group is to distil these comments and opinions and derive a meaningful series of recommendations relating to future planning controls within Billericay.  These recommendations will be presented to Basildon District Council, as the Planning Authority for the area, with the aim of including them as part of the Local Development Framework which is currently in preparation.  The LDF will be the criterion for planning policy in the District for the next ten years, so it is vital that the BDS proposals are tabled well before the LDF is finalised. 

A further series of road shows will be arranged during the coming months, to give all those interested an opportunity to examine the draft Design Statement and review the Design Guidance recommendations.  All comments arising from this second phase of consultation will be considered and, where appropriate, used in editing the final version of the document. 

Other issues not relevant to the LDF which were highlighted by the first consultation will be notified to the relevant body for consideration and any necessary action.