Bishop Gladwin tells Essex Councils to build for community

[...] Essex, far from being stuck in some stereotypical identity of the 1970s and 80s is on the front line of change and development in our country and across Europe. What happens here is the shape of the future. If we are to speak for our people we need confidence in our identity and a growing respect for those in authority who seek to address these needs. Steering the County through this time is an awesome task.

It is not my task to make party political points. But one issue, it seems to me, dominates our agenda. The development proposals for this region and for our County. We have a history in this County of Government thinking, for honourable reasons, that simply building houses is the way to build for the future. Having done that we give a nod in the direction of what is called ‘sustainable communities’. Is it not time we turned the argument round? That would mean beginning with the human agenda of community living – the things that make people’s lives good and wholesome – and then moved into thinking about what this means for homes (not houses) and services (not infrastructure). We start, as people entrusted with a divine task for the people, to use languages that are human rather than structural and functional. Read more