A DEVELOPER has indicated it wants to build 400 homes on green belt land in Basildon.

The area east of Noak Bridge had been allocated for around 400 new homes in Basildon Borough Council's former masterplan designating where 20,000 homes could be build before it was pulled last year.

However, in the authority's new version of the plan there is no guarantee the site to the south of will be included – meaning the area is now facing a hybrid application for up to 400 homes.

The plans, for the land south of Wash Road and east of Eastfield Road, have been revealed after Croudace Homes asked whether a planning application needed to be accompanied with an an environment impact assessment. The council has said an EIA is not required.

Basildon Borough Councillor Stuart Allen (Con) whose ward covers Noak Birdge told the LDRS: "We don't any more development and that is our straightforward opinion. We are trying to defend the green belt around the borough in general. That is a our first line of defence.

"The second one is we are concerned about the local school because it is at capacity and we don't want any development that would increase demand on that school."

Croudace has been contacted for comment.

The borough council has concluded that the site has not previously been intensively developed and the proposed development in isolation is "not anticipated to contribute to a significant potential increase in traffic, emissions or noise".

The council says the proposed development would extend the existing settlement edge of Noak Bridge in the eastern direction beyond Eastfield Road, and lead to a partial urbanisation of the area with associated visual effects on the locality.

A draft site allocation for residential use comprising up to 400 homes was previously proposed and promoted by Croudace in the now withdrawn Emerging Basildon Local Plan for the 20 hectare site.

But that plan was pulled after the administration decided it needed "to look at the data behind it in much more detail to understand understand what each of our five towns needs in order to grow and prosper in the coming years".

Basildon Borough Council ruled in 2018 the site was deliverable. But in 2019 Noak Bridge Parish Council objected to the site's development over a number of issues including its green belt location its harm to the area's openness.

The parish council added that many extra homes would require Noak Bridge primary school to double in size.

The parish council added with no room to expand at ground level it would have to build above and that would take a number of years to undertake causing upheaval for staff, children and parents and will require the relocation of the pre-school to provide additional parking spaces.