We are working in one of the most unusual and challenging communities in the UK, Jaywick Sands on the Essex coast, to develop a new Place Plan working with Tendring District Council. Jaywick is the only one of the plotlands communities that retains its original small plot, low-rise high density form - an important part of social history but now a community with the highest level of deprivation in the UK.

We are leading a multi-disciplinary team including regeneration specialist Igloo, Maccreanor Lavington, DK-CM, Antea and Potter Raper Partnership, to develop a strategic plan for the renewal of the existing plotlands areas as well as new development on land owned by Tendring District Council. Working in a close partnership with the multi-agency Coastal Community Team, community leaders, MHCLG, Homes England, the Environment Agency and others, we are developing new approaches for flood resilient housing and upgrading of existing properties.

An early win from the project is a new Design Code for Jaywick Sands, to ensure that development proposals that come forward in the short term do not create unacceptable impacts on neighbouring homes and are appropriately flood resilient. This will be a Supplementary Planning Document and will be subject to formal consultation later in 2022. We have worked closely with the Environment Agency to develop a design approach that incentivises the replacement of poor quality, non-resilient homes with better quality dwellings, while working within the constraints of the extremely tight plot pattern.

This project has led to our involvement in other initiatives locally, as we seek to find ways to engage with the community over what can sometimes be difficult conversations about their environment. We contributed to an exhibition at the Jaywick Martello Tower about flooding and coastal climate change - Tides of Tendring - and you can read more about this here. We have also supported Inclusion Ventures and the Jaywick Community Land Trust to gain planning consent for new premises locally.