PLANS to expand Harlow could include land in Stort Valley according to a new public consultation document by the Harlow 2020 Partnership.

The Harlow 2020 Vision claims that natural growth will see Harlow's population rise from its current 84,000 to 87,600 by 2021.

Moderate growth would see a rise to 97,300 over 20 years.

However, the document asserts that the greatest advantages will come if Harlow embraces growth of up to 160,000 over the next 20 years.

This is likely to happen if areas such as Stort Valley, north of Harlow, are included in the plans.

If plans to double Harlow's population go ahead, around 11 new satellite neighbourhoods, each with a population of around 4,000, would be created in the Stort Valley area.

Chief Executive of East Herts Council Roger Bailey said: "It's still very early stages at the moment, and we look forward to hearing Harlow Council's view of the document.

"As yet we haven't been formally consulted, but we do note that work by David Lock in the document could rule out expansion to the north of Harlow owing to the impact of noise coming from Stansted."

In a recent statement, chair of the Harlow 2020 Partnership David Ellerby said: "The experts' advice is that Harlow would benefit most from expansion up to a population of 160,000, twice the size it is now, in terms of the new facilities and infrastructure this would generate. They also identified areas around the town where growth is more likely to occur.

"We have aimed to consult our neighbours throughout this process.

"The planning experts met representatives of neighbouring councils and we offered to meet them again when we were drawing up the draft Vision.

"Now the draft itself is out to consultation and we will be happy to sit down with those councils to discuss it."

A Harlow Council spokeswoman said: "At the moment we have no definite plans. We are looking at different areas to assess our options."

June 28, 2002 11:30