PLANS to build 40 homes at a former private school in Colchester have been revealed.

Charity Eastern Counties Educational Trust has applied to Colchester Council for permission to build the new estate on land north west of Oxley Parker Drive, Highwoods.

The site used to be the playing fields of Oxley Parker School but has been vacant and unused since the school closed its doors in 1998.

The land is next to Colchester Rugby Club, off Mill Road, which is being revamped in a mixed used development including hundreds of homes as part of Colchester Council’s Northern Gateway.

A planning report states: “The site is allocated for open space within the current and emerging local plan, however, the site has not been in use as open space since the closure of the Oxley Parker School in 1998.

“Since this time it has been vacant, and privately owned, with no access to the public.

“The site’s current contribution to the amenity of the area is limited.

“The proposed scheme seeks to provide a usable area of public open space together with substantial landscape buffers as part of the proposals.”

It adds: “It has been shown there would be a number of significant benefits associated with the development and that the proposal represents sustainable development, compatible with existing uses in the area.”

Plans suggest 12 of 40 properties, or 30 per cent, will be affordable.

The homes will be a mix of one and two bedroom maisonettes, two bedroom terraces, three bedroom semis and four bedroom detached houses.

Colchester Council will have the final say on the plans.