EPPING: Plans for flats refused (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Changed the face of the High Street?? in what way?? Do me a favour, yet another development rejected, council seems to ignore its repsonsibilities to those under 60 yrs old by building the required quota of housing in Epping, which at the moment stands at just 30% of what is expected.

Every single development, regardless if its even recommended by planning, is rejected, every single one. They would rather have a sad, scruffy looking shabby run down second hand shop (it is not an antique shop) occupied by more pigeons than customers than providing the residents in Epping who actually like to leave the house after 6pm, a nice restaraunt to eat at and, some desperatly needed accomodation.

As for rejecting the Billie Jeans one, surprised at that as it was considered by those that matter to the council that the pub made Epping look like Soho, but just goes to show how desperate the council are in wanting to keep as much riff raff out of Epping as possible, the plot is not even in the main High Street, ridiculous. How small was the plot Higgins built on in Station Road, amazing how that got planning, a big hmmmmmmmm with that one.

Town councillors will destroy Epping with their old fashioned ideals, soon there will be no shops, no jobs, no accomodation and it will be a ghost town (aoart from the pointless market on Monday's) just look at how many shops have closed down in the last few months.

Epping has an appalling reputation by business's who stear well clear of Epping due to its stone age council and its desire to remain in the era of Dick Turpin. Epping was built on trade, shame that it is now impossible to do even that.

This has to be a good decision for the long term benefit of Epping and its high street. Yes to bringing businesses into the town and definitely yes to bringing the spaces above our shops into residential use - but not at any price. This proposal lacked any design merit whatsover and would have severely compromised the visual appearance of Epping High Street and its conservation area.

Epping is facing many physical changes in the coming months and the district council really needs to do something to encourage development proposals to be of the highest possible quality in design terms, as well as encouraging the long-term viability of Epping High Street. So credit where credit's due - well done to Epping District Council for encouraging a rethink for this pivotal site. Let's just hope it survives the inevitable appeal and that the next proposal for this site can encourage activity on our High Street and enhance its physical appearance.

Sorry but have you actually seen the state of the so called "antique shop"?? Anything would have been an improvement, decline it and risk it staying like that forever. planners approved the application for gods sake.

The High Street is just that, a High Steeet, it is nothing special, a few listed buildings but it's olde worlde image was lost some 30 years ago, and the reason it was lost is because olde worlde doesn't bring jobs, growth or business. Olde Worlde Might be lovely to look at, but it costs money, and these are hard hard times, do you see the empty shops piling up? Declining application after application on the basis of aesthetics is just going to scare off business and you end up with run down or empty shops.

It's time Epping let go of the past and move to the future. EVen at the expense of upsetting a few who like to just "look at the High Street" the council should concentrate on the people that actually use it, work in it and pay the councils astronomical business rates. Soon, no business's will bother even considering Epping as everything requiring council approval is like pulling teeth, it's a fact shared by many.

Billie Jeans is not even in the High Street, and it's next door to some 1970's designed shops with flats above, and its currently bright pink. how could any proposition be declined on the basis of not being in keeping with the High Street? In the end.people are just not going to bother and the town will be empty.

Please excuse any mistakes or bad english as I've typed this on my phone.

Of course I've seen the "antique shop". It's scruffy and does no credit to the High Street. But a bland identikit building would be just as harmful. I'm simply calling for new development on the High Street to be of good design quality because Epping is a beautiful town and ought to stay that way. I don't want to see an "olde worlde" pastiche - I just want to see something that looks great and can work for future business/residential use. It's so important that the site is put to good use as soon as possible and I hope that a sensitive developer will come forward to do that soon.

I live in Epping and I also own a business in Epping. One of the reasons I moved my home and business to Epping was because it's such an attractive place to live and work. I've seen the damage that insensitive development can do to other towns and I'd hate to see it happen here.

I agree the Town Council needs to do more to encourage shopping activity on the High Street and they can be extraordinarily obstructive to some of the most innocuous planning proposals by businesses. Nor have I understood why they are so anxious to uphold a medieval market charter: a market on Saturday as well as Monday would bring more people to the town at weekends and serve those who commute out of Epping during the week. I'm sure many market traders would welcome the opportunity to have a stall at the weekend too.

I am just so pleased to see someone actually agrees that the council can be obstructive and that the Monday market is just pointless. The council has created a huge reputation for itself as being stuck in a time warp and devoid of any kind of modern business sense. The council should be grateful that a business wants to set up in Epping, but the arrogance shown sometimes proves they believe in the opposite.

Any market in Epping actually drives people away becuase there is simply nowhere to park, and on Monday's, people just avoid the High Street all toegther, and that would be the same on a Saturday, but at least a Saturday market would benefit the majority of residents and not just a few. The market doesnt employ anyone locally, its of no benefit financially to the town whatsoever and it has no real social purpose, as I said, it drives people away so the permanant business's, the ones that pay £1,000's in rates, are the ones that suffer.

If people want a market, you have the biggest market in Europe every Saturday at North Weald, 5 minutes away, go to that.

Mmmmm.......I see SJC123 is still being just as vocal on wanting Epping to be one concrete, built on bland place..........serio
usly - if you hate Epping as it is - why do you live here? (are you a developer? - Do you have a vested interest?)
Go to Brentwood and see what has happened there with the 'new' shops - all empty. I counted last week how many places there were to eat in Epping and including pubs, cafes, restaurants - there were 30! How many more can be sustained. As for 30% of the housing being built - there are over 300 houses going up on the St Johns site - apart from the proposals for the huge site on the old junior school site which is going to have some form of housing as well. The infrastructure in Epping cannot support it. Perhaps when these huge developments are going up the developers should be made to pay for a new Drs Surgery etc.
Anywhere can have a bland modern development but we should look after our history - this building may need some TLC but it is over 200 years old and we need developers coming into the town who respect and are sympathetic to Epping and it's history. Yes we need a vibrant High Road and homes but there are better ways of doing it.
As for the market - it is very busy - some of the traders I have spoken to have said it is their best market. Many people come from the outlying villages every week.
But getting back to Epping and it's development - please developers - have some respect not only for the buildings but for the people who live and trade in Epping already.

And...........the developers changed their application. They originally asked for and got permission for retail and homes but later changed it to a restaurant and homes. We need more retail not restaurants.

I have no vested interest, why does someone with a different opinion need to have a vested interest? I don’t hate Epping, there are better towns yes but I don’t hate it, I just cannot stand the way the council and some residents seem to put Epping in a higher league than it really deserves, it really is not that special a place and definitely won’t be if things continue the way they are.

The 200 year old building has no character, it has no historic features to it in any shape or form, and I bet the majority of people in Epping could not give a stuff. It is certainly looking like every single year of that 200 at the moment. If there is so much concern about this building, why has no one ever ordered the owner to maintain the property in the proper way?
Not all that is modern is bland, it's personal taste.

Here lies the main problem, Epping is not comparable to Brentwood in any shape or form, and I think this may be Epping's problem in that people believe it is a larger and more significant town than it actually is. Epping is a small little town, Brentwood is shall we say, a lot larger and its High Street three times as big, but I bet the % empty per shop in Brentwood, is less than the % empty per shop in Epping at the moment. Anyway, all High Streets are suffering because they have mainly concentrated on retail, hence why they are all empty, with the internet, retail has no future. All the shops that have closed in Epping recently have been, you guessed it, retail. We also have what feels like about 100 hairdressers. There are not 30 restaurants, obviously you included fast food outlets and fish and chip shops in that which is a bit misleading of you really. Have a look on yell.com and adjust your figure.

There are a lot of restaurants because, quite simply, people go to them and people use them and spend money in them, name one (proper) restaurant that has closed down due to trading conditions in Epping? Other than Danny K’s (which was really a fast food burger place and only open during the day) I can’t think of one. I can name quite a few retail shops just in the last few months that have closed down though.

When I say housing, I mean AFFORDABLE housing, and the figure is in fact 49%. Only 49% of the affordable housing identified as being needed in Epping by 2010/11 has actually been built.
It’s called moving with the times, something a few minority residents, and a dinosaur council, are hell bent on avoiding. All councils are having to make adjustments to increases on demands for services, and infrastructure, what makes Epping so special?

Epping is not bigger or more significant than Brentwood and not trying to be - I never suggested otherwise - just that they have empty shops as well that are newer developments. Epping is an old market town and is not trying to be anything different.
Also - how about the Indian Restaurant - shut down - and yes as I said I included all food outlets - you can eat in them! Also - what is Pizza Express - not a lot different and not in my mind a restaurant.
Affordable housing - to whom? It would only be outsiders who could 'afford' to live in and buy them! (also they cannot be specifically reserved for people of Epping - after all Waltham Forest housing have a lot of houses in Epping -.....

But I'm not talking about that at the moment - I agree the owners of the building should be made to upkeep it properly. There are some very interesting documents relating to surveys on this building and although it dates from the 17th century it has evolved over the years and shows historically how Epping has changed.There are some parts that would not be a loss ie the 30s addition but we should be trying to save the history and heritage of Epping - 'develop but not destroy' - and thanfully the Councillors could see this as well.
If you really don't hate Epping SJC123 try saying something positive about it - it's a much nicer thing to do.

I do not understand why sjc123 could believe that preserving our surroundings and individual buildings, vistas etc has anything to do with the elderly - as a former Epping resident said "conservation is all about the future" (Griff Rhys Jones).

Whether we need more buildings for particular purposes should not be a matter for the planners but a commercial decision for the owners. So long as the businesses respect development, conservation and health standards it should not matter to planners whether a property is a restaurant or a bookmakers shop.

What is regrettable is that we have so many charity shops; one reason is that they pay no business rates, so they can unfairly out-compete private businesses any day. That they use the funds for good purpopses is not really the point.