WORK on the foundations of 3,600 extra Beaulieu Park homes have barely started, and 418 "prestigious" properties at the Marconi factory site only went on sale today – but plans are already afoot for 7,800 new dwellings in Chelmsford.
Chelmsford City Council has produced a report featuring 116 sites that could be developed by 2021, but there could be more areas of land up for grabs by the autumn when the authority will call on landowners and developers for more spots.
The government has asked the authority to come up with a definitive list of where homes can be built up until 2036 as it prepares to shape a new Local Development Plan .
So far the council has built 6,905 homes of its 2021 target.
"We're on target and have a five-year plan for 2021 but after a while we have to give a target for 2036 and start all over again in what is a never-ending process," said city council leader Roy Whitehead.
"We are keen to see Chelmsford expand but in a way we can control and that is the point of doing these consultations."
Back in 2006 central government ordered the authority to find space for 16,000 homes by 2021.
Last week's report, the Chelmsford Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, spells out precisely how the council is doing and if they are likely to meet government targets.
Yet of the 370 sites listed only 116 have been approved as suitable for building on, promising a return of just 7,813 homes.
This includes the Beaulieu and Channels developments already underway, as well as 178 homes, shops and a GP practice opposite Broomfield Hospital, a project that was last month granted planning permission.
Many development sites classed as "unachievable" by 2021 – a lot of them in a flood zone, in the green belt or currently used as car parks – could still be targeted between 2021 and 2036 though.
The council must hold a public consultation to help design its local plan for the post-2021 period by August 2015. City council cabinet member for planning and economic development, Neil Gulliver, has branded the assessment stage a waste of time.
"It's the confetti of bureaucracy," he said.
"It takes up time and money which could be better spent. I'm worried that with the increase in jobs in the city, which continues to grow to 90,000 at the moment, and with unemployment down to about 1.9 per cent and still dropping, we need to be providing discount housing for people so this assessment doesn't do anything for us.
"I would like to see it abolished tomorrow.
"It's one of those pieces of bureaucracy that no one would notice if it were not there. These sites have been kicking around for development since before I was involved.
"There is so much land and the same sites keep coming back again and again."
Meanwhile, contractors for developers Countryside Zest have started work on constructing an entrance in Essex Regiment Way into what will be a £1 billion extension to Beaulieu Park, including a railway station and three schools.
Contractors will start work on roads within the development next week while engineers will descend on site in late July to prepare the ground for the very first bricks.
"That for us is very exciting and it really will signal the start of Beaulieu," said Countryside Zest spokesman Guy Lambert.
The company aims to start selling the first 233 homes, made up of one-bed apartments to five-bedroom houses, by March 2015.
Deeper into the city centre, Bellway Homes Essex will unveil its "Marconi Evolution" in New Street today, a complex of 418 homes and offices built on the foundations of the historic wireless factory.
Richard Burrows, managing director of Bellway Homes Essex, said: "We are delighted to be involved with the delivery of this prestigious development in the centre of Chelmsford.
"We understand how important this site is for the city and have worked closely with the community and local authority to bring forward a scheme that will really benefit the area."
Been waiting for 2hrs clacton > #chelmsford and no one knows what's going on. Can someone from @greateranglia let us know?!
— Ellie Pierpoint (@RosellieP) June 17, 2014Absolute carnage at Liverpool Street tonight!! Some people have been here for 90 minutes waiting for their train! #Chelmsford@greateranglia
— Nathaniel John (@Nathaniel_John) June 17, 2014
POLITICIANS in the Maldon district did not show up at more than a quarter of their meetings in the past year, new figures reveal.
The 31 elected district councillors, who each pocket a £4,545 annual basic allowance, plus more cash for broadband, travel and extra responsibilities, missed 253 meetings out of the 901 committees they were required to attend.
But although the figures may concern residents, the deputy leader of the council, Cllr Miriam Lewis, says the attendance records are meaningless.
The Conservative councillor for Heybridge West told the Chronicle: "Council meetings are just a fraction of what a councillor does and are not a true reflection of the hard work we do. They do not mean anything in my opinion."
The average Maldon district councillor attended 29 meetings, while missing just over eight
"It's fair to say that some councillors could do more but it's down to time they have and their own personal conscience," Councillor Lewis said.
"If I was a resident it wouldn't worry me that my councillor didn't attend and it's up to the electorate to decide if they want that member to represent them."
The number of meetings a councillor must attend annually varies from as few as 27, to more than 40, depending on what responsibilities they have on various committees.
Often district councillors are also members on Essex County Council or their town or parish councils and may have to arrange for replacements to represent them if meetings clash.
Cllr Lewis added: "Councillors may have parish, or county council obligations, conferences, task groups, field trips, and many also work full time as well as having a family.
"The majority of councillors do a lot of work for their wards both seen and unseen, for instance last week I ended up doing 72 hours.
"We need members with particular expertise, such as in planning or in finance and these people may still be in work but the council can save a great deal of money by using these people."
Conservative councillor for Mayland David Horner attended the fewest meetings from April 2013 to April this year, showing up to just 13.
He was absent at 15, meaning his rate of pay for each meeting based on his basic allowance is around £349.61.
The councillor, who is one of two who does not have a picture of himself on the council website, refused to comment when contacted by the Chronicle.
Taxpayers' Alliance director John O'Connell said: "Local residents will be rightly angry that some councillors seem to treat their roles as voluntary."
At the other end of the scale some councillors found themselves at more than 50 meetings including Henry Bass, Wickham Bishops and Woodham, who went to 58 meetings, Cllr Mrs Maddie Thompson, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, went to 53, leader of the council, Cllr Brian Beale, Althorne, went to 48, and Cllr Miriam Lewis, Heybridge West, Cllr Penny Channer, Mayland, and Cllr Adrian Fluker, Southminster, went to 46.
A CIGAR smoked by Winston Churchill was sold for over £2,000 along with around 130 other objects at the first auction to be held at Braintree and Bocking Arts Theatre for 40 years.
The boxed cigar butt smoked by the former prime minister on his visit to North Africa in the Second World War was snapped up at the inaugural auction event at 6.30pm last Wednesday, June 4.
"It was a really good turnout and we're so pleased at how successful it was," said Martin Crossman, 43, director of Bocking Arts Theatre Antique Auctions.
"A lot of people came to view items to see if they were going to get anything in the auction for next time.
"A lot of the items were sold so it was really pleasing to get such a good reaction from the public."
The venue has not held an auction since the 1970s but it opened its doors to the public for an evening sale that included a collection of Art Deco table lamps, a 1930s silver and gold gilt Tiffany & Co vase, as well as a rare collection of Victorian wooden tables and garden games.
These games included a Victorian Gofky lawn game, similar to croquet, plus a collection of rare early Edwardian postcards of Braintree and the surrounding villages.
A set of old Braintree police files were sold for nearly £200 as 130 of the 200 items under the hammer were bought by eager auction-goers.
It was also the first auction in the country to sell abandoned storage units, where bidders purchased goods left at units in Freeport, without knowing what was inside.
Both the units at U Store Solutions in the town sold for over £100 each, while some local viewfinders were purchased by two bidders for around £200 a piece.
Also attending was Will Axon, star of the BBC's Antique Road Trip, Flog It! and Your Money, who acted as auctioneer. Organisers hope he will return for the next sale on July 9.
Mr Crossman, who first worked in the antique business in a Battlesbridge shop in 1991, said: "Alan Goldsmith of Stansted Mountfitchet Toy Museum is a trustee at the Bocking auction and he knows Will and has done filming at Stansted Mountfitchet Castle with his son Jeremy.
"We're really looking forward to the next auction, hopefully it will be even bigger and better. We're hoping to get two original old muskets in, so it should be another good turnout."
The next auction will be at 6.30pm on July 9 and people will be able to view items from 10am in the Bocking Arts Theatre.
MUSIC lovers are set to enjoy a feast of orchestras, choirs and jazz as the "biggest and most ambitious" Maldon arts festival kicks off in just over a week's time.
The festival, which begins on Saturday next week and runs until Saturday, July 5, will also host a cappella singing groups, chamber music, and opera, along with talks and workshops.
Now in its seventh year, the festival has adopted a war and peace theme to fall in line with the anniversaries of the First World War and D-Day.
Colin Baldy, 56, from Maldon, founded the festival and is confident that this will be the best year yet, after attracting musicians from around the world, including Italy and the United States.
"This is our biggest programme by a long way, and the one that I'm most pleased with, we have had a growth in interest. This is the biggest and most ambitious to date," he said.
"We have a great combination of really high-class professional musicians and events taking place in truly stunning locations.
"The war and peace theme seemed to make sense this year and it runs right the way through the selections we have made."
Venues for the 15 events include the All Saints and St Mary's churches in Maldon, the town's Blue Boar Hotel, the Quaker Meeting House in Butt Lane and St Mary's Church in Mundon.
Along with selling more tickets than ever before, the festival has attracted three new sponsors, including supermarket giant Lidl, Tiptree jam makers Wilkin & Sons and sausage-makers debbie&andrew's.
Mr Baldy added: "We want this to be Essex's answer to the Aldeburgh festival."
In keeping with the war and peace theme, the festival kicks off with Hadyn's Nelson Mass on Saturday next week which was composed during the Napoleonic Wars and originally entitled Mass in time of War.
And on the same night Duruflé's famous Requiem Mass will be played.
The Requiem was commissioned as an act of remembrance for the First World War by the government of Vichy France.
Another highlight is an organ recital by the celebrated organist, John Scott, formerly of St Paul's Cathedral and now of St Thomas' Church Fifth Avenue, New York.
The festival is organised by Colin Baldy and Kieran Sampson but also relies on volunteers who give up their spare time to ensure the smooth running of the events.
One of those volunteers is Katie Gowler, 24, from Maldon who has been helping out since its inception.
"I think the festival is a fantastic opportunity for Maldon. It's the sort of standard that you might expect in London," said Miss Gowler who is singing in the opening ceremony.
She added: "The festival is really well received and held in some of the most historic and wonderful places.
"I'm very excited for it to start and I'm very happy to give up my spare time to help the festival's progression."
For more information on the events during the festival please go to www.maldonarts.org.uk
A man is due to appear in court in connection with the discovery of cannabis at a house in Chelmsford.
Jamie Humphrys, 49, of Highwood Road, Chelmsford, has been charged with the production of a controlled class B drug.
He was bailed to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on July 2.
