A LONG-AWAITED village plan has finally been adopted after more than six years of heard work.

The Coggeshall Neighbourhood Plan can now be used when considering planning applications after it was formally adopted at a meeting of Braintree Council.

The plan was first subject to community consultation in 2019 followed by a further consultation in 2020. and a referendum in May where 89.64 per cent of those who voted, voted in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan.

Chair of the plans, Peter Kohn said it has been six years of "hard work by a small dedicated team" to the to this point.

Mr Kohn added: "The team canvassed opinion in Coggeshall about how villagers would like to see their community develop through a series of meetings and events over the years and the people of Coggeshall were very engaged with the whole process.

"They came out and voted overwhelmingly in favour of the finished plan.

"I would like to thank the team for the many hours they put in to achieve this and the villagers of Coggeshall for engaging with the plan.

"We received a lot of help from the planners at Braintree Council and the experts who advised us, without which the plan would not have been possible.

"The Neighbourhood Plan is now a blueprint for the Parish and District to use to determine how we want our village to develop."

The district now has four neighbourhood plans in place.

Councillor Gabrielle Spray, at Braintree Council, said: “I would like to thank the Coggeshall Neighbourhood Plan subcommittee for all the work that they and other local volunteers put into producing this plan.

"The production of a neighbourhood plan is no mean feat, it involves a good deal of background work, investigation, surveys of residents and collation of evidence.

"Coggeshall is one of our district’s most historically important villages with more than 200 listed buildings.

"This plan seeks to protect the village’s historic heritage."