Permission for 182 homes off Doddinghurst Road, Pilgrims Hatch, was issued on 29 September, a year after the vote. 64 are affordable and £5.5m goes to services.
Planning permission for 182 homes on fields off Doddinghurst Road in Pilgrims Hatch was issued on Tuesday 29 September 2026. The Planning Committee voted for the scheme on 16 September 2025, so the permission arrived a year and 13 days after the vote.
The developer is Countryside Partnerships, which also won permission for 142 homes north of Shenfield last month. The homes must be started by 29 September 2029, or the permission lapses (Brentwood Borough Council, decision notice for 24/00864/FUL).
What has been approved
The land is site R16 in the Brentwood Local Plan, allocated for around 200 homes. It sits west of Doddinghurst Road, opposite the Brentwood Centre, in two parcels either side of the A12. The council’s officer report sets out the scheme:
- 182 homes, all on the northern parcel of 6.12 hectares, between the A12 and the back gardens of Bishop’s Hall Road, Highgrove, Philip Close and Elizabeth Road
- 64 affordable homes, which is 35% and meets the Local Plan policy
- 9 custom build plots, where buyers choose their own interior layout
- houses of two and two and a half storeys, plus three-storey flats along the A12 to shield the rest of the site from road noise
- no homes on the southern parcel, the overgrown woodland south of the A12 next to Karen Close and Russell Close, which is to be managed as public open space with gravel paths
- one vehicle entrance from Doddinghurst Road, and a footpath and cycle link to public footpath 149 on the west side
(Brentwood Borough Council, officer report)
Officers said the southern parcel would be difficult to build on and was agreed as open space before the application was submitted.
Who the homes are for
The 118 market homes lean towards smaller properties than the local housing needs study asks for. The report gives this mix:
| Market homes | Number | Share | Needs study |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | 15 | 12.7% | 9% |
| 2 bedroom | 50 | 42.3% | 25% |
| 3 bedroom, including the 9 custom build | 44 | 37.2% | 36% |
| 4 bedroom or more | 9 | 7.6% | 30% |
Officers accepted the shortfall in four-bedroom homes because the site is meant to provide “more entry level market dwellings”.
Of the 64 affordable homes, 51 are for affordable rent and 13 are shared ownership. That is an 80/20 split, against the 86/14 the Local Plan asks for. The report says this means four fewer homes for rent, with the same number of affordable homes overall. Most of the rented homes are two-bedroom. After the council’s housing manager asked for bigger family homes, the developer swapped five two-bedroom rented homes for three-bedroom ones.
How the vote went
The committee approved the scheme by 11 votes to none, with Cllr Murphy abstaining. The minutes record that ward councillors spoke against it: Cllr Mayo for Brentwood North, and Cllrs Lewis, Davies and Aspinell for Pilgrims Hatch. They cited:
- the site’s closeness to the A12
- an unsuitable housing mix
- poor air quality, traffic noise and pollution
- the impact on wildlife
- a lack of road safety measures
Committee members also raised the parking. Officers said there were “minor deviations from planning policy” but that the benefits tipped the balance (Planning Committee minutes, 16 September 2025).
The consultation drew 97 objections and 3 other representations. Residents worried most about traffic on Doddinghurst Road and Ongar Road, which the objections say already serve six schools, and about school places, dentists and GP appointments.
The parking gap
The scheme has 345 parking spaces: 291 allocated to homes, 44 for visitors and 10 garages. Brentwood’s standards call for 331 resident spaces plus 46 for visitors, so the site is 32 spaces short.
Officers accepted that because census figures put car ownership in the ward at about 1.44 cars per home, and because the site has bus stops and cycle routes nearby. Essex County Council agreed on one condition. If cars from the new homes start parking on the surrounding streets, the developer pays for a traffic order to stop it. The county asked for £10,000 to be secured for the South Essex Parking Partnership to bring in restrictions on nearby roads if overspill happens after the homes are finished. The developer does not plan to have the estate’s internal roads adopted.
Where the money goes
The officer report lists the payments to be secured in the Section 106 agreement. The items with a stated figure come to about £5.49m. Most are index linked, so the sums actually paid will differ.
| Contribution | Amount |
|---|---|
| Primary school places | £827,545 |
| Secondary school places | £758,779 |
| Early years and childcare places | £248,263 |
| Brentwood town centre public realm | £1,102,195 |
| Brentwood and Shenfield station public realm | £855,189 |
| Bus services between the site, Brentwood and nearby places | £470,000 |
| Quiet cycle routes between the site and Brentwood | £439,187 |
| Playing pitches | £401,239 |
| Indoor sport | £193,042 |
| NHS primary care capacity | £90,100 |
| A128 Ingrave Road double mini roundabouts | £86,373 |
| Libraries | £14,159.60 |
The school money adds up to £1.83m. Bus and cycle money is £0.91m, sport is £0.59m, and the NHS, roundabout and library payments together are £0.19m. The NHS sum is based on 437 extra residents.
The report also lists a railway station cycle parking payment, but its figure is printed as “£2,0125”, so we have left it out of the total. A Section 106 document was added to the council’s file on 25 September, four days before the permission was issued.
What has to happen before anyone moves in
The decision notice carries conditions that must be met before the first home is occupied:
- a signalised crossing on Doddinghurst Road, between the site entrance and Elizabeth Road, built and working
- a new bus stop layby on the northbound side of Doddinghurst Road, with a shelter and a real-time information screen, and a new shelter at the southbound stop
- the improved site access junction, with a dropped kerb crossing of Doddinghurst Road
- an updated residential travel plan approved by the council
There is also a biodiversity gap. Even after planting and the woodland management, the site loses 18.57 habitat units, so the developer has to buy units elsewhere, within the borough or as close to it as possible.
What it means for you
- If you live on Bishop’s Hall Road, Highgrove, Philip Close or Elizabeth Road, your back gardens adjoin the site. Before building starts, the developer must get a construction management plan approved, covering dust, noise and lighting. Those plans appear as “discharge of condition” applications on the council’s planning register, and you can read them there.
- If you are on the housing register, 51 homes for affordable rent are coming. Our planning applications page explains how to follow the scheme’s next steps.
- If parking overspills onto your road once people move in, that is exactly the case the £10,000 parking money was requested for. Report it to Essex County Council.
- On Doddinghurst Road, expect works at the entrance, the new crossing and the bus layby before the homes are occupied. They will show on our roadworks page when Essex County Council advertises them.
This is the second big housing permission in the borough in a fortnight. The first was Countryside’s 142 homes north of Shenfield, issued on 17 September with about £3.9m of contributions attached.
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