A COUNCIL has refused to grant planning permission for two proposed housing developments.

The decisions were made on the basis of 1,138 homes due to be delivered as part of the North Heybridge Garden Suburb adequately demonstrating Maldon District Council’s five-year housing supply.

Maldon councillors met on Wednesday (August 16) to vote on proposals for nine homes in Great Totham and up to 14 houses in Cold Norton.

Only the Cold Norton development offered a 40 per cent proportion of affordable housing, with six of the proposed dwellings earmarked as such.

Addressing the committee, a member of the public also raised concerns over road safety and increased traffic linked to the Great Totham development and its proximity to Broad Street Green Road, which is classified by Essex County Council as a main route between major towns and cities.

She said: “I have a nine-year-old son who I no longer let leave the house opposite the road… It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

She also questioned the need for more housing in Great Totham on top of those included in the North Heybridge Garden Suburb project, asking if there is “really a need for this number of houses in the area?”.

Great Totham councillor Richard Siddall said the council “has to go with the officer recommendation” for refusal.

Presenting both the Great Totham and Cold Norton applications, planning officer Lisa Greenwood said the latter would constitute an “unacceptable urbanised effect” on the surrounding countryside, and that development of the land off Crown Road “would completely change the character of the land”.

Although the applicant for the Cold Norton development, Mike Spurgeon, defended the proposal as a “modest extension to the village”,  Purleigh councillor Sue White said: “I’m normally the queen of supporting developments in my ward, but this is a step too far.

“It’s the wrong development in the wrong place.”

Planning permission for both applications was unanimously refused by the committee.