BASILDON Council has pledged "to go down swinging" after the government ordered it to meet strict deadlines including a 28,000 new homes target.

It comes after Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook wrote to Councillor Andy Barnes, leader of Basildon Borough Council demanding a final formal public consultation on where the council thinks 28,000 homes should be built between 2027 to 2042. The government adds submission of the plan to the inspector for examination should happen no later than December 31.

After plans were drawn up by the previous Labour administration, Basildon Council's Reform and Tory groups are calling for the proposals to be scaled back. Tory Councillor Barnes has said the plans cannot proceed without significant infrastructure investment.

A motion passed by the council backed by the Tory and Reform groups has said the figure must be withdrawn and Basildon's allocation recalculated.

Cllr Barnes said at a full council meeting on July 21: "If councils are expected to make difficult planning decisions and remain accountable to residents for the consequences, they must have a genuine say in determining what level of development is appropriate and sustainable.

"This council must therefore be prepared to stand up for Basildon. We should write to the Secretary of State and demand that the target is withdrawn. We should demand a review of the flawed standard method, a proper commitment to long-term infrastructure funding and a legally binding infrastructure first approach to development.

"We should write to the government and make it clear that whilst we cannot stop them imposing a local plan on us, if that is their will, we will go down swinging."

Basildon has not adopted a local plan since 1998. The council has yet to adopt a plan under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, making it one of only five authorities without an adopted plan under the 2004 Act. It is the only authority in this group that has not submitted its current emerging plan for examination.

The existing plan is over 27 years old and the government has said therefore policies it contains are likely to be significantly out of date. The Government adds the council is already at least five months behind the schedule. It adds continued absence of an up-to-date local plan leaves the council vulnerable to peacemeal and speculative development.

Leader of the Labour group and former council leader Cllr Gavin Callaghan said the new administration needed to accept the numbers.

He said: "When will these gladiators on those benches learn? They said that they want to go down swinging. Lads, you've been knocked out. We've had the intervention letters. It is over."

He added: "There are thousands and thousands of people living across our borough who are desperately in need of housing. And when you listen to the the same old Tories wanting to repeat the same old mistakes about not building about fighting a government and you see it clearly tonight.

"They've said they're going to fight and in round one they've been knocked out and they've lost. So let's just put that behind you."