Drawn out plans for a scheme of up to 1,000 homes in the Green Belt look set to be dealt a blow when councillors meet on Tuesday (July 9).

Thurrock Council’s planning committee has been recommended to say it would have refused Cogent Land’s 2016 plans for a development on a 74.4-hectare site off Muckingford Road, Linford at Tuesday’s meeting. The applicant appealed against the council’s non-determination of the proposal in April.

The application has 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. Mulberry Strategic Land has now 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 homes.

The application includes a new primary school, health centre, road network, a pedestrian railway crossing, a local centre and new areas of open space, including formal recreation.

The site is made up of three parcels of arable farmland, one of which, to the west of Linford Recreation Ground, would be excluded from the scheme should the Lower Thames Crossing development go ahead.

A report by council officers to Tuesday’s meeting states: “The proposals are inappropriate development in the Green Belt, would lead to the loss of openness and would cause some harm to the purposes of the Green Belt.”

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