CONTROVERSIAL plans to demolish a town’s historic textile mill have been granted by Braintree Council.

The future of the Hollington's factory in Coggeshall is in doubt following the ruling at the council’s planning committee meeting on August 9.

It comes after an application was launched by the site’s owners to demolish one of the three factory buildings which has fallen into a state of disrepair.

It has been claimed the building could pose a danger to residents with the owners seeking to flatten the first building which sits on the corner of Church Street and Vane Lane.

However, the case for saving the building was fought for passionately by speakers at the meeting.

Ian Stock, a Coggeshall resident, said: “The interest of the community is against sometimes the private owners of individual sites, and I think the Hollington’s site in Coggeshall is a prime example of this.

“No one disputes the current terrible state of the building or the need to do something better with the site.

“To demolish it and replace it with perhaps some pseudo cottagey executive homes would be historically dishonest.

“There are many such buildings in Coggeshall and in the wider county and their quality is usually such they do little more than scream fake and thus devalue the real heritage of the place.”

Objectors proposed using the existing building for another purpose in a bid to retain its heritage.

However, despite concerns, councillors voted to grant the application so demolition work can be carried out at the site.

Councillor Gabrielle Spray said: “It does seem clear from the report that it is an unsafe building with some very serious health and safety concerns about its retention.

“I appreciate both speakers about retaining it until development proposals come forward, but I’m not sure that is a practical or safe thing to do.

“That could take a while and I don’t think there is anything even vaguely in the pipeline and, in the meantime, you then have a building which is deteriorating, and which local knowledge says is quite unsafe.

“In the meantime, I’m not sure we can just say ‘we’ll leave it and see what happens’.”