The failed "garden communities" plan has cost taxpayers nearly £8 million pounds and has led to speculative development across our district. 

As Leader of Braintree District Council, as a member of the Local Plan Sub-Committee and as a director of North Essex Garden Communities Limited, Councillor Butland is responsible for decisions over several years which have led to the failed bid to build two of the three proposed “garden communities” 

There was never any need for these oversized and unpopular developments, which would have added 43,000 extra homes in North Essex alone. BDC had already allocated 14,000 new homes under its “Local Plan (Part 2)”. In addition BDC has left itself in a position where it has been forced to grant many more planning applications due to the delays to its garden communities plan.  Braintree has more than enough site allocations to settle its housing needs.  

But Councillor Butland ignored the views of thousands of Braintree residents who wrote to protest, and advice given in 2018 by the Inspector.  Warnings were ignored that the proposal was flawed. Rightly, it was rejected again - on the grounds that it was unviable, undeliverable and unjustified.

In the two years that this fiasco has continued, the District has been (and will continue to be, due to lack of plan) inundated with speculative building developments.  

Councillor Butland is responsible for making wrong strategic decisions and showing extremely poor leadership. As a director of the company behind the Garden Communities bid, he has also shown a questionable Conflict of Interest.

We, the residents of Braintree District, have had enough of his mismanagement and demand that he resigns. We need someone who will engage with residents and represent the people who elected them into office.