TWO councillors would like police present at planning meetings, after claiming they were chased and felt threatened by a man whose application they had just turned down.

Tendring councillor Sarah Candy alleges applicant Tim Banks followed her after a planning meeting at which his application to keep two caravans on land in Crockleford Heath was refused.

Fellow councillor Tony Fawcett claims after the meeting, in Weeley, Mr Banks took a photo of him, then told him: “I know where you live.”

It was the third time Mr Banks’s application for a site at the hamlet, near Ardleigh, had been refused by the council.

Mr Fawcett claimed: “When Sarah and I came outside at the end of the meeting, Mr Banks was standing in the middle of the road.

“He came right up to us, took a photograph of me and noted down my car number plate in his mobile phone. I did feel intimidated and threatened.

“A police presence may be something to consider at future meetings. We really can’t have behaviour like this.”

Mrs Candy, who had proposed the motion to refuse the application, alleged: “He ran out to the road and chased me down the street. I rang 999, because you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Planners had originally recommended councillors to approve the application, citing “exceptional circumstances”.

The Banks family have previously said they wished to stay at the site because their daughter was at a local school.

Essex Police spokesman Roger Grimwade said: “Police have been contacted by a Tendring councillor over the conduct of a man who had submitted a planning application.

“This follows an incident at a council meeting.

“Officers are interviewing witnesses to the incident to establish whether any offences have been committed.”

Mr Banks’s wife, Jo, declined to comment.