Two Green Belt applications refused in Thurrock

Councillors have refused two planning applications for a total of up to 1,750 homes in Thurrock because they are in the Green Belt.

Thurrock Council’s planning committee voted down two major applications at its July 9 meeting and the cases led to the committee chair calling for more respect from applicants who were disappointed by officers’ recommendations for refusal.

Firstly, plans for up to 1,000 homes on a 74.4-hectare site off Muckingford Road, Linford (pictured above), were given the thumbs down.

Thurrock Council’s planning committee voted that it would have refused a 2016 plan for a development after the applicant appealed against the council’s non-determination of the proposal in April.

Mulberry Strategic Land’s application had been delayed while the decision over the 14.3-mile Lower Thames Crossing, which would link Kent with Essex, goes through the Development Consent Order process. The applicant had drawn up two scenarios within its outline planning application.

One proposes of up to 830 homes if the Lower Thames Crossing is constructed, while the alternative proposes up to1,000 homes if it does not go ahead. Homes would be of up to five bedrooms and there would be a 35 per cent proportion of affordable units.

But councillors followed the officers’ recommendation to say it would have refused the plan due to its position in the Green Belt.

Public speaker Ben Cole, opposing the scheme, told the July 9 meeting: “This application has been in the planning system since 2016 and has finally reappeared with two options, depending on the significant national infrastructure project, the Lower Thames crossing.

“The East Tilbury ward has, in the last decades, had hundreds of new homes built in the Green Belt and in surrounding area hundreds more have been approved and not yet built.

“The infrastructure recommended to support these new homes is not fully in place so predicting what they would require – for perhaps another 830 homes – is guesswork.

“We have not seen the formulation of the existing developments on Green Belt and agricultural land has already been taken away.

“This application in such a vast development will change the character of semi-rural location forever, bringing significant harm to the Green Belt but has little in the way of very special circumstances.”

Councillors then refused a plan for up to 750 homes at Thurrock Airfield (pictured below).

Grasslands’ application for the 31.2-hectare Green Belt site which include a medical hub, retail and commercial units, was to develop the airfield, which is still in use, on part of Kings Farm in Parkers Farm Road, Orsett.

Harm to the Green Belt was one of the leading reasons for refusal.

Cllr Barry Johnson said: “I’m in full agreement with the officers’ report as a refusal for this application.

“Apart from the site being firmly within the metropolitan Green Belt, which remains precious, it’s quite clear that the village of Bulphan and the site itself simply cannot accommodate an application of this size.”

Both applications attracted challenges to the reports produced by council officers, leading committee chair Cllr Michael Fletcher to make a statement after both applications, directed at the applicants’ representatives.

He said councillor frequently disagree with officers but added: “Whether we agree or disagree with our planning offices, it is always done from a point of view of respect and I would like to see the same respect shown when making applications statements to this committee.”