News

The developer, Inner London Group, is putting together an application to build the two, three and four-bedroomed homes off Star Lane.

Rochford District Council has said it expects the application to be lodged within the next few weeks, but residents fear the application could open the floodgates for housing in the area.

Michelle Baldassarra, 40, of Alexandra Road, said: "The village as a whole won't be able to cope with it. "We are at the end of the road. If they build more houses it is going to be so clogged.

"It will have an effect on the GP surgery in the village and we have only got one shop - the Co-op. They have just shut the sports centre.

"What is it going to be like with more houses? What is it going to be like to live here?"

Michael Johnson, 50, also of Alexandra Road, said: "We can't sustain that number - 130 houses is going to be a strain on the infrastructure. They are about to shut Shoebury and Rochford police stations.

"We have had nothing about roads being widened, we have had nothing about the school being expanded.

"I think we are being dumped on."

The Inner London Group also owns land around the nine-acre brickworks site. Mr Johnson said there was a fear this too could be developed.

He said: "We have been told it is very possible they would be developed as well.

"A residents' action group is beginning to form. Until we know definitely the land isn't going to be developed on, we are organising ourselves.

"We are concerned about the green belt. We all pretty much understand the factory site is going to be developed."

Larry Fenttimen, senior partner at the Inner London Group, said his firm owned the fields and lakes next to the brickworks site, but had no plans to develop them yet. He said: "Our application is for the brickfield site. That is around 130 to 140 units going in there.

"At the moment we are just talking about the brickfields site.

"The plans are still going through the design stages. It will be a mixture of houses, really what the market needs."

He added in the future there might be talk of opening up the lakes area for development.