A NEW town roughly the size of Bury St Edmunds could be built between Colchester and Braintree, as the full scale of garden settlements plans were revealed.

Modelling for the 16,858-home site located on an 800-hectare arc around Marks Tey has been included in documents which are set to be discussed by Colchester Council’s Cabinet at the end of the month.

Work is due to start on the plans for the town, which has been dubbed West Tey, in the 2022/23 financial year and is expected to cost an astronomical £1.425billion, while creating more than 3,190 jobs.

An estimated £152 million is likely to be invested in education facilities for the new town, which would include 11 primary schools, two secondary schools and 24 early years facilities.

Improvements to the area’s roads would include junction upgrades to the A120, which could eventually cost £60 million, and improvements to Marks Tey railway station. Another new town built on the border between Colchester and Tendring could eventually see a total of 6,608 homes built with the creation of 2,253 jobs.

The project would include work to create a new link road between the A120 and the A133, costing approximately £17 million, while upgraded pedestrian and cycle links, including greenways and a bridge over the A133, are likely to cost £6million.

Colchester, Braintree, Tendring and Essex county councils have joined forces to create a new company called the North Essex Garden Communities Limited which will be in charge of delivering the controversial new towns, which aim to deliver vital infrastructure before housing is completed.

It is anticipated, an agreement will be made for each council to share the debt accrued initially for each of the new settlements.

The estimated peak debt for the town on the border of Colchester and Tendring is £122 million, while West Tey could rise to £210 million.

The initial plans for the garden settlements have been included in draft Local Plans for between 2017 and 2032.

Both new towns would include 1,250 homes in the initial period but would be followed by much more in the years and decades to come.

Critics of the schemes say these are unsustainable and would result in a dramatic loss of green space.

Concerns have also been raised about the amount infrastructure required being impossible to deliver while opponents have also warned of “characterless and commuter-based towns”.

Last week, the acting leader of Colchester Council, Tim Young (Lab) said the Local Plan would be impossible to deliver without garden villages and he said they were required to stop opportunistic developers submitting planning applications on inappropriate parcels of land.

The authorities would also get a funding boost from the Government for the ambitious new schemes.

Initial plans will be discussed by cabinet members of Colchester, Braintree, Tendring and Essex county councils before being debated at full council.

It is expected the authorities will sign up to the North Essex Garden Communities Limited and appoint directors as well as seeking agreement from landowners before the pre-submission draft of the Local Plan is submitted in January.

The project could be held up if any of the areas for development are not included in the Local Plan, but relevant parcels are looking increasingly likely to be included.

A third garden settlement to the west of Braintree has also been earmarked for development, as well as those on the Tendring border and at West Tey.

It would include 9,729 homes and create 3,688 jobs with six new primary schools and a secondary school.

The scheme is likely to cost £890 million and will take an estimated 35 years to complete from when it begins in the 2022/23 financial year.