Tendring Council’s Local Plan appeared to have few supporters when it was displayed at Weeley’s council offices earlier this month.

People either slammed the recommendations for hundreds of extra homes in the village, or they thought the plan was poorly displayed.

Weeley is the focus of much development in the plan, which aims to guide development in Tendring District until the 2030s, and perhaps not surprisingly, locals were in uproar.

Villager Terry Long was unhappy at the thought Weeley would be “turned into a town” and he contrasted council ambitions with a time when he wanted to have a motorbike business in Weeley, but was refused due to the few extra bikes it might attract.

“It doesn’t matter what people will say. They won’t have a say in it. It’s ridiculous,” he said.

Fellow Weeley resident Helen Tweed agreed council plans were ridiculous.

“The infrastructure cannot cope as it is,” she said citing a need for better roads, railways, sewerage and water treatment before any new development.

“Weeley is supposed to be a village. If they built the houses they are proposing, it will be Weeley new town,” she added.

Caroline Bannister said the Local Plan and its planned Weeley houses would “annihilate our lovely village.”

Already the roads were just a constant line of traffic, the schools are oversubscribed and doctors won’t come to Tendring to serve the extra residents.

“We repeat this view over and over again. There is not a local need to have 1500 properties,” she added.

Patricia Parsfield of Little Clacton agreed plans to “turn Weeley into a town” were absolute rubbish and instead homes should be built by the car auctions at Elmstead.

“We are threatened with doctors surgeries on everything. We never get them,” she said.

Mrs Parsfield also felt the plans did not contain enough to attract jobs.

This was an issue also raised by David Eagle of Great Holland.

“If we want younger people to stay, we need employment land,” he said.

Unlike the others, David actually wanted to see some development. His brother John has a plot of land in Walton, which they believe has potential for a few homes.

Ian Tucker, formerly of Mistley Parish Council, felt all the development was being ‘compressed’ into certain areas.

“I’m very sceptical of the whole thing. Great Bentley no infrastructure but quite a large area recommended for development. I live at Great Oakley now, nothing seems to be happening there, which is good,” he said.

Other people could be heard discussing traffic congestion at Thorpe and the need for a village bypass, but a council official raised its potential cost and who would pay?

A Clacton couple said they opposed plans for homes off Jaywick Lane, saying the roads cannot cope already.

One St Osyth man said the plans were not clear and simple, either a big book or a selection of maps, nothing simple for the layman to understand. He could not see the ‘options’ promised by officers.

Graham Parfitt of Torrington agreed there was little clear about West Tendring.

Terry Walker of Frinton had ‘sympathy’ for Weeley but as someone who had worked in tourism, he quizzed officers on how Tendring would fund the needed improvements to help develop tourism.

However, Mick Brown the retired chairman of Frating Parish Council, called the Local Plan “an achievement.”

“A lot of work has gone in from officers. They keep coming up with revisions. I think they have got it right. The public will have to accept a lot of it,” he said.