WORK on the first phase of a groundbreaking Chelmsford development has been launched.
With hard hats, high-visibility jackets and a symbolic spade or two, bosses at developer Countryside were joined by councillors and dignitaries at the Beaulieu site, off White Hart Lane, to kick off work on the initial 49 houses of the 600-acre development.
Once complete, the £1 billion project will boast 3,600 homes, three schools, a business park, neighbourhood centre, and a second railway station for the city, on a plot vast enough to count as an entirely new town in its own right.
But speaking at the launch, Andrew Carrington, strategic land director at Countryside, insisted the vision had always been to integrate with existing parts of Chelmsford.
"I think by working with the likes of Springfield Parish Council it means that when we're long gone in years to come the organisations that have an in interest in making a cohesive community are involved," he said.
"I think it will help add to the identity of Chelmsford. As a community there has been a real shortage of new housing coming through, and an undersupply for many years of new stock, so to have homes coming through in a significant number will really add to the city.
"It's the end of an era in one sense in that the planning phase has come to an end, but the start of a larger one as we'll now be delivering the development, creating places and building homes."
Detailed applications for the second phase of housing, which will be made up of 184 new homes, 27 per cent of which are affordable, are expected to be approved before Christmas, along with the application for an adjoining neighbourhood centre.
It's hoped the first wave of residents will arrive next autumn to move into completed properties in the new neighbourhood, the first of some 10,000 new people who will call Beaulieu home.
It is expected that the entire development, the largest in Chelmsford's history, will take up to two decades to deliver in full.
The developers were keen to point out that the scale of the new district had only been made possible by the "enlightened" approach from Chelmsford City Council, compared to other local authorities across the country.
"We actually like development," said Councillor Roy Whitehead, leader of the city council.
"But the important thing is to control it and put it where we want it, and where residents want it. I hope we have managed to integrate the development into Chelmsford as a whole.
"It's exciting times for the city with lots and lots of things happening, and there's more to come."
