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Protecting The Dedham Vale |
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Protecting The Dedham Vale |
Until five and a half years ago Manningtree station announced itself by an avenue of poplar trees. Step off the train, cross the station car park & turn right you would be at the foot of one of the most celebrated walks in natural England, starting through the poplars & heading towards the heart of the Dedham Vale. Not far along the River Stour when the scene becomes remarkably familiar you might stop. You could be standing on the very spot John Constable set up an easel to paint his masterpiece 'The Hay Wain'.
The experience starts differently today. The poplars have been felled. And, to expand the car park, the adjacent sloping bank has been levelled with infill buttressed by a 190m sheet metal wall up to 4m tall. CCTV cameras watch and darkness triggers a sharp white light that can be seen from miles around. This is no gateway to Dedham Vale. This is gateway to Guantanamo Vale.
The Dedham Vale is a 'legally protected'
We are individuals from Manningtree, Essex, who, until March 2020, were privileged to enjoy the sanctuary of an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty' (AONB) on our doorstep. However, while COVID ripped through the UK, a giant metal wall ripped through our 'protected' sanctuary. How was this allowed to happen?
This is our attempt to explain.
We are not legal professionals but members of the public who have invested considerable time to understand elements of UK law (especially as it relates to development by train operators on their station land). This lead straight to the authored 'sleight of hand' behind the devastation brought upon Manningtree & the Dedham Vale. Do read on.
We hope that this resource will be interesting, relevant & helpful to those like us. All we ask you to do is to share it with others. Thank you.
Planning advisor to Greater Anglia, Mott MacDonald Ltd, wrote a
provide details of the development proposals and seek confirmation from Tendring District Council ('the LPA' hereafter) that an extension to the existing ground level car park is
Mott MacDonald's letter quotes the following planning law:
'Development by railway undertakers on their
(In other words planning law permits railway undertakers to develop on station land classified 'operational' without having to seek planning permission. They can, more or less, do whatever they want on such land.)
Mott Macdonald's letter goes on to claim that the Manningtree Station development plot is operational land. It is NOT:
The two subsections making up
So Mott MacDonald claims that the Manningtree Station development plot is operational yet subsection 2 Section 263 of TCPA determines that it is NOT operational. How does Mott MacDonald make its claim?
Buried inside it's
Greater Anglia built at Manningtree Station. It
In March 2020 Greater Anglia sent a very similar
Again, the planning authority failed to spot that subsection two was absent and awarded Greater Anglia a certificate of lawfulness of proposed use or development for the construction of a new car park at Brandon railway station.
However, taking the issue to the High Court SAVE Britain's Heritage claimed that Breckland District Council had failed to consider lawfully whether the car park was entirely on operational land' ie. The council had failed to consider subsection 2 S263 TCPA.
The High Court agreed, Brandon Station was saved. (See Dad's Army station saved from bulldozers )
All station traffic to & from Suffolk (including Ipswich) passes through a single lane underpass (or takes the level crossing to its side). Commenting before the near 40% percent increase in station car park capacity, Cllr Carlo Gugliemi labelled it 'the worst bottleneck in Essex'.
Sir Bernhard Jenkin MP posts on his website:
For years now, I have been pushing for progress to rectify the insufferable traffic issues, alongside Cllr Carlo Guglielmi, Tendring Councillors, and my colleague James Cartlidge MP, who represents the Suffolk side of the Stour
and
There is understandable irritation amongst residents who are often caught in the jams that is so often backed up through the town
and
Progress has been slow and it is a harder nut to crack than many of us had hoped.
and
We cannot simply wait for improvements while residents are left with this intolerable situation, especially at rush hour. I convened a task force with Cllr Guglielmi to get to grips with this issue once and for all, and it remains one of my top priorities to see fixed.
August 2025
Dear Sir Bernhard,
Please be aware that between the time you posted the above & COVID shut down station traffic the problem merely got worse.
London commuters are now returning & those insufferable traffic issues that you refer to are also returning. The only difference between then & now is that station car park capacity is nearly 40% greater (and thousands of new homes straddle the underpass). Your term 'irritation amongst residents' does not begin to reflect the mood amongst residents.
This is, as you must surely know, a ticking traffic time bomb.
It has been over five years since you posted the above. You have made the issue an election pledge. Is it still one of your 'top priorities to see fixed'?
Yours sincerely,
A number of your constituents
In its 2018 (pre works)
operating over-capacity hence a car park expansion Scheme is required
A car park expansion scheme was not required. What was required was the elimination of the substantial financial incentives to park at Manningtree Station (rather than elsewhere in Suffolk, not least Iswich Station). A small sample of current prices:
| Ipswich Station | Manningtree Station | |
| Annual rail pass to London | £8,592 | £7,488 |
| Season parking ticket | £2,850 | £2,020 |
Of course Greater Anglia can resolve its supply & demand problem (see below) as it wishes. But, Greater Anglia shareholders should be paying for the solution. Not Manningtree & the Dedham Vale.
Greater Ipswich population: 139,638
Ipswich Station parking spaces: 494
Greater Manningtree population: 8,619
Manningtree Station parking spaces: 836
(Ipswich - Manningtree: 11 miles)