Editing Witham (section)

===20th and 21st centuries===
[[File:Witham Public Library (geograph 5405138).jpg|thumb|Witham Public Library]]
The town expanded greatly in the late 1960s and 1970s, when the [[Greater London Council]] built three large [[council estates]] on the west and north sides of the town, and a smaller one to the south, for families from London to move to as part of the ''New Town and Expanded Town [[London overspill|overspill policy]]'' of that time. A famous one-time resident of the town was the author [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], whose statue stands opposite the town's library, which is a short distance from the author's house. The library stands on the site of the old Whitehall cinema, which closed in the late 1970s and which was itself a conversion of the White Hall country house.

Witham has grown in size after the development of the Maltings Lane estate to the south of the town between 2002 and 2003. This was followed, in 2012, by the moving of Chipping Hill Primary School from its old premises in Church Street to a new-build in Owers Road. The development of this area has continued, including the opening of an [[Aldi]] superstore in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Aldi-launch-appeal-rejection-planned-Witham-store/story-20780089-detail/story.html |title=Aldi launch appeal against rejection of planned Witham store in Maltings Lane &#124; Essex Chronicle |access-date=6 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906163243/http://www.essexchronicle.co.uk/Aldi-launch-appeal-rejection-planned-Witham-store/story-20780089-detail/story.html |archive-date=6 September 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Approved developments in this period include the reconstruction of both the [[New Rickstones Academy]] and the [[Maltings Academy]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/4541964.Witham__Planning_applications_in_for_new_schools/|title = Witham: Planning applications in for new schools| date=12 August 2009 }}</ref> completed in 2011; the [[Marston's]] pub and restaurant on Gershwin Boulevard, completed in 2013 with the adjacent Seymour House day nursery; the refurbishment and opening of a [[Morrisons]] store in the old premises of the Jack & Jenny pub in 2014; and the newly-built Witham Leisure Centre<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.witham-leisure-centre.co.uk/ |title=Welcome to the Witham Leisure Centre Community Information Website |access-date=6 September 2014 |archive-date=6 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906160852/http://www.witham-leisure-centre.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> on Spinks Lane, replacing Bramston Sports Centre, completed in 2014.