ANGRY villagers have launched a campaign in a bid to stop plans to build hundreds of houses that could “devastate” a historic parish.

Residents of Thorpe-le-Soken spent the past week planning a campaign to fight the owners of the Lifehouse Spa, on Frinton Road, over plans to turn Thorpe Hall Parklands into a housing estate.

The owners of the spa want to build 200 houses, 50 holiday homes and 92 assisted living care properties on rural land on the edge of the village.

Parish councillor Tina Starling decided to launch the campaign before the spa submits a formal application to Tendring Council as part of the Local Plan, which is expected this month.

Mrs Starling said: “The aim of the campaign is to get local people aware of the proposed developments and gather momentum among other residents.

“Overall the proposed buildings would make local traffic diabolical and the village just could not cope with more developments being built.”

Mrs Starling and a group of local campaigners have recently carried out an online survey on Facebook which showed that 96 per cent of the 181 respondents were against the housing proposals.

More than 10 per cent of people against the planning didn’t live in Thorpe-le-Soken, but they used the spa, worked in the village or drove through it on their commute to work.

Key issues raised from the survey were high street traffic, the historic parklands around the original Thorpe Hall gardens and overdevelopment of the village.

Parent Kelly Couter, who recently moved to Thorpe, said: “I moved from Colchester to live in a proper village, not another sprawling town.

“I want my children to attend a local school in a village that has a real community. Thorpe is special and I don’t want to see it ruined.”

Mrs Starling added: “We are now planing to up the ante through social media and speak with residents face-to-face.

“We don’t want our village turned into a town, and we want to keep a sense of community spirit.”

Donald Emslie, Lifehouse Spa executive chairman, said the spa has held two public consultations attended by more than 200 people where he was able to discuss the proposals and answer questions.

He said: “All of the information we have gathered as part of our consultation is now in the process of being collated and, along with the results of the studies we have undertaken, will form the basis of our application for planning some time in the new year.

“We believe our proposals will bring many benefits to the whole of the Tendring area through the creation of some 200 jobs and a significant increase in expenditure with local suppliers as the project develops over the next five years.”