Billericay residents battling a controversial five house development in Perry Street have been left bewildered after Basildon Council's environment committee failed to reject the proposals last week.

Billericay's area committee, Residents' Association and town council had all opposed the plans along with homeowners in the surrounding area.

The environment committee, however, refused to throw out the scheme after they visited the contentious 0.6 acre site.

Instead the application is expected to get the go-ahead once the committee's chairman and the council's head of planning services are satisfied the developers have met two conditions set by the committee.

One Raven Way resident said: "I feel the meeting was just cosmetic and they had already made the decision. This is a brownfield site and any new houses should be built in character with the surrounding area - which these are not.

"The council is obviously concerned about going to appeal due to the cost it entails, but on the other hand if this type of development keeps getting approval when is it going to stop?"

Residents angrily argued the scheme threatened their houses with being overshadowed, was an over development of the location and would also increase traffic in Perry Street, but their pleas were ignored.

A decision had been postponed by the committee until councillors had had a chance to view the location themselves and more than 20 residents packed the meeting to hear their conclusion.

The scheme's opponents were disappointed when the committee gave the scheme its backing as long as a garage roof was lowered and certain conditions on road access were met.

Despite the opposition of Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors on the committee, chairman Richard Llewellyn, feels the decision was correct.

He said: "We took into consideration the objections of residents when we visited the site, but on planning grounds we are pretty limited in what we can do.

"On balance I consider the development reasonable and if we did not have this kind of development here we would have to look to the Green Belt which would be sad for the whole district."

Cllr Peter Patrick, of Billericay East, argued the council should have listened properly to the objections of local residents.

He said: "This is another classic case of the will of the area committee and the people of Billericay being over ridden by the Labour administration."

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