Part 6 of the complete Great Oaks history, covering great oaks redevelopment & the future.
The former Great Oaks Retail Park is undergoing another major transformation. Planning permission was granted in October 2021 for demolition of the existing retail buildings and redevelopment with up to eleven storeys, providing 245 homes, flexible commercial/community floorspace, improved public realm, cycle parking and car parking.
A later application varied a series of conditions covering matters such as landscaping, parking, drainage, noise, energy and access. Those variations were approved in June 2024. Further condition applications have dealt with construction management, remediation and related technical work.
Planning documentation records the proposed demolition of the former retail structure that had housed Staples and a mobile-phone outlet. A later lawful-development application concerned demolition works already carried out under the approved scheme. Essex County Council's 2025 delivery assessment listed the Great Oaks Retail Park housing project as under construction, with a potential delivery period around 2028/29.
The retail-park project sits within a broader town-centre regeneration concept often described as the Great Oaks Quarter. Earlier masterplanning by Basildon Borough Council and its design team proposed around 500 homes across a wider area, together with commercial and leisure uses, new streets and walkways, and stronger pedestrian and cycle connections.
The wider concept also relates to the transformation around East Square and the new cinema development. It is important to distinguish that broader 500-home masterplan idea from the specific approved Great Oaks Retail Park scheme of 245 homes.
Great Oaks has always adapted to the needs of Basildon town centre. It began as an early road and service corridor, developed into a centre for emergency services and motoring, gained large-scale retail and leisure in the 1970s, became home to independent shopping in the 1980s, and is now moving towards a more residential mixed-use future.
Even as redevelopment changes the buildings, the Great Oaks multi-storey car park, civic services, court, clinic and connections to Town Square, East Square, Broadmayne and Southernhay continue to give the road an important role in how people enter and use Basildon town centre.