GARAGES will be demolished to make way for social housing at three sites in Colchester.

A total of 71 garages will be knocked down with eight affordable homes being built in their place at two sites in Greenstead and one in the Barn Hall estate.

Members of Colchester Council’s planning committee at a meeting yesterday evening agreed there was a need for affordable housing and there were no grounds to refuse Estuary Housing Association plans for Stalin Road, Rosalind Close and Affleck Road.

But they rejected similar plans to replace four garages with three homes in Swan Grove, Chappel, and deferred plans to build three homes in place of 34 garages in Mason Close, Shrub End, to allow the developers time to add a visitor’s parking space to the proposals.