Brightlingsea doctors have hit out at plans to build up to 300 homes on a single site in the town, saying they “would have a direct and detrimental impact on patient safety, access to care, and staff wellbeing”.
In a letter to Tendring District Council (TDC) planners, partners at the Colne Medical Centre said the proposal was likely to generate more than 1,000 new patients creating a “simply unsustainable” level of growth when the practice is already “operating at maximum capacity”.
The doctors say the town’s pharmacy is already struggling to meet the needs of the existing population. “Patients frequently experience delays of up to a week for medications due to limited storage capacity and staffing constraints,” they point out. “Increased demand would likely exacerbate these issues, forcing more patients to travel outside the area for essential medicines.”
In addition, increased traffic would worsen delays to ambulance services. “response times in this area already exceed recommended standards, placing residents at increased risk
The extra homes – to be built on a field off Samsons Road – are proposed as part of the government’s desire to build 1.5million new houses across the UK by the end of this parliament. This has meand TDC has to plan for an additional 7,000-8,000 homes by 2041 – on top of the 9,600 that are already planned across the district. TDC says this would require up to 1,034 homes a year being built in the district from January 2026.
The partners – Doctors Samir Patel, Jamie Nightingale and Charles Nkanor – are urging rejection of the plans “unless and until comprehensive, fully funded, and deliverable plans are in place to expand local healthcare infrastructure, including GP services, pharmacy provision, and emergency care access, in line with national and local planning policy requirements”.
The Brightlingsea GPs highlight the absence of any additional infrastructure proposals to cope with an increased population. “Without the necessary infrastructure investment, it is not feasible for our practice to safely absorb further demand,” they said, pointing out that the current surgery has no room to expand, nor is there any other suitable site for a new building.
The doctors say the plans would be in direct contradiction to National Planning Policy Framework guidelines. “Paragraph 180 highlights that planning decisions should ensure developments do not have an unacceptable impact on health and quality of life. The additional strain on already overburdened healthcare services would clearly conflict with this principle.”
The Colne practice caters for over 11,000 registered patients in Brightlingsea, Thorrington and Alresford. With three partners, three salaried GPs and a nursing team, the facility is working at “full capacity” say the partners.
“As healthcare providers, we have a duty of care not only to our patients but also to our staff. The current level of demand is already stretching our workforce to unsafe levels, contributing to burnout and recruitment challenges. Approving this development without adequate provision for healthcare services would further compromise our ability to deliver safe, effective, and timely care.”
The doctors are urging rejection of the plans “unless and until comprehensive, fully funded, and deliverable plans are in place to expand local healthcare infrastructure, including GP services, pharmacy provision, and emergency care access, in line with national and local planning policy requirements”.
At the last full meeting of Brightlingsea Town Council on March 19, councillors agreed a lengthy response to the housing plans. The council formally objected to the Samsons Road proposal, citing “overwhelming concerns raised by residents, neighbouring councils and councillors, centred on severe traffic constraints caused by the town’s single access road (the B1029), existing congestion, limited network resilience, and the cumulative impact of other approved developments and quarry HGV movements”.
It added: The Council believes that the Local Plan’s evidence base lacks site-specific transport assessments and that significant further technical work is required to properly evaluate traffic, infrastructure capacity, active travel limitations, environmental risks, and emergency access issues.”
The council said that it wasn’t opposed to all development, but called instead for smaller, more integrated sites to be used within the town boundary.
• Public consultation on TDC’s proposals ended on Monday, March 23. The council is aiming to submit its final plan to Government later this year, followed by examination by a planning inspector in summer 2027 and, subject to that process, adoption in winter 2027.
