FEARS a £48 million leisure development will only bring houses, rather than jobs, have been raised by a concerned resident.

Harding Estates’ blueprints for the Harwich Valley complex, on land between the A120 and Stour Close, in Dovercourt, were given the green light by Tendring Council back in 2015.

The development is set to include 297 homes, along with a six-screen cinema, supermarket with petrol station, 63-bed hotel, pub, shops, restaurants, drive-thrus and business units.

It was set to create more than 1,000 jobs.

However, the developer has now lodged a new planning application with the authority.

It is asking to build the houses first, and proposes housing access will be via Stour Close rather than a roundabout.

Christine Holmes, of Stour Close, has strongly disagreed with the new plans.

She said: “The most significant content of this application is there will be no businesses, so no jobs and no access from the A120.”

The developer’s application said: “The applicant’s intention was for the retail uses permitted to fund the infrastructure, including the roundabout to the A120, and therefore help deliver the remainder of the permitted uses on the site.

“The consequence was that all the proposed traffic to the development, including to the residential phases, was to access the site via the new roundabout to the A120.

“However, due to the structural changes in the retail industry nationwide, there is no current market interest in the scale of retail development permitted, which is frustrating the applicant’s ability to fund and deliver the roundabout in order to bring the site forward.

“However, a national house builder is due to deliver the residential phases of the development first.”

Tendring Council will have the final say on the plans.