Resignations, staff rushing to complete tasks under pressure and people working from home are among the reasons a key plan for 14,000 homes has been delayed until next summer.

Residents could now have to wait until at least August 2023 to read the first draft of Uttlesford District Council’s local plan, which sets out how the authority will manage growth.

Now councillors fear the plan could have to be redone after a report said the latest version had not been completed to an acceptable standard.

However, senior officers at a joint meeting of the local plan leadership group and scrutiny commitee on Monday (October 10) disputed the council was starting from scratch and said the delay was not due to a lack of evidence.

High turnovers, staff rushing to meet deadlines and a lack of integration exacerbated by home working were cited as reasons behind its unreadiness in the report. This is the latest of several delays to the plan, which had been expected in November. Adoption is now expected in October 2025.

Councillor Vere Isham (Lib Dem and Green Alliance, Takeley) said at the meeting: “This isn’t just finding one or two figures that have dropped out, we’re back to stage one.

“That’s getting the product on the production line, the boxes ready to wrap it up and send it out to the customer, and suddenly finding that the products are dangerous.”

Officers at the meeting said there have been resignations in the team and in management and that seven people out of a team of nine have been with the council for less than two years, resulting in a lack of continuity.

The report also says there had been “misguided responses to pressure,” including people rushing to complete tasks when the groundwork had not been completed, and their concerns and suggestions being treated as a distraction from completing tasks.

It continues to say a more collaborative approach and more tightly structured work programme, with elements broken down into bitesize tasks, have been adopted.

Additionally, the draft will be published after the May 2023 local elections, a decision which was criticised by opposition leader Melvin Caton (Lib Dem and Green Alliance, Stansted South & Birchanger).

He said: “Are we seriously going to go into the 2023 local elections without giving our residents the slightest inkling of what the thought process of the current administration is on the local plan?”

Director of planning Dean Hermitage said running the consultation during the pre-election period, but decided it had to avoid publishing a contentious public document during this time. The committees voted to recommend the council’s cabinet adopt the new timetable for the local plan when it next meets.