PROPOSALS for more than 1,300 houses in Little Oakley will not get off the ground because housing demand is “non-existent”, it is claimed.

Tendring Council’s development plan manager Gary Guiver told more than 100 residents in the Memorial Hall there would be insufficient demand to warrant the developments.

Five sites have been put forward by landowners and housing developers, the largest of which would stretch from the A120 roundabout in Ramsey to Rectory Road in the village.

Mr Guiver said: “The Harwich area doesn’t have that level of demand. Demand is pretty much non-existent.

“Within the next ten years, is there really going to be a huge demand for housing in the area? I suspect not.”

Tendring Council is putting together its Local Development Framework, which will decide where housing development will be allocated for the next 15 to 20 years.

The council is focusing primarily on Clacton, and Mr Guiver all but ruled out building 1,000 homes on the Rectory Road site.

He said: “Do I think it’s going to get off the ground? It looks incredibly speculative. With the information I have, I would recommend this doesn’t be put in the plan.”

But Caroline Thomas, of Rectory Road, warned residents not to be lulled into a false sense of security by the comments.

She said: “You make it sound like we haven’t anything to worry about, but people have to make their views known now.”

Other sites put forward in Little Oakley include 246 houses on land off Harwich Road, 90 behind Oak Ridge and Harwich Road, 30 on land to the west of the football pitches and six to the east of Seaview Avenue.

Residents at the meeting raised a series of objections to proposals, citing lack of infrastructure, jobs, and access as the main reasons why the developments should not go ahead.

Shirley Brooks, who lives in Harwich Road, said: “We are getting much more traffic already. The roads are being destroyed.”

Residents can submit their views to Tendring Council until the end of November.