A PLAN to protect Dunmow s heritage has been completed by a group led by a professional town planner. And, if adopted by Uttlesford District Council (UDC), the town design statement will be a future guideline to protect the town from further unwanted new

A PLAN to protect Dunmow's heritage has been completed by a group led by a professional town planner.

And, if adopted by Uttlesford District Council (UDC), the town design statement will be a future guideline to protect the town from further unwanted new housing and commercial developments.

Town planner and chairman of the design statement group, Neil Blackshaw, has been working on the document with the town strategy group for over three years.

He said: "After a lot of hard work we have finished and we have a document which we believe will help oversee the development of Great Dunmow for the foreseeable future.

"The purpose of a town design statement is to set out the community's aspirations for the design of future development of a town - based on a thorough analysis of its character.

"Whilst the Town Design Statement is produced by, and for, the community it is intended that it be adopted by the local planning authority (UDC).

"If this can be secured it means that the statement will be used in all of the future decisions on planning applications in Dunmow."

After extensive public consultations the final 60-page statement has been handed to UDC for adoption - a decision could be made by the Development Control Committee as early April 8.

A council spokesman said: "It is very early stages at the moment but our planning department is currently going over the details of the town plan, which will be considered at a meeting of the Development Control Committee."

Mr Blackshaw fully expects the council to approve the document. "It will require the document to have been subject to extensive public consultation and to have been subject to a sustainability appraisal. We believe that both of these criteria have been met," he said.