PLANS to increase the number of houses in Colchester by 34,000 have been labelled as ‘madness’ by council chiefs.

John Jowers, cabinet member for localism and planning at Essex County Council, made the comment as the council’s cabinet discussed their response to housing growth scenerios from the East of England Regional Assembly.

The council has delivered a fierce rebuke to the plans, which outline four different growth scenerios for Essex for 2011 to 2031.

The response from the council says that factors such as the recession, the county’s infrastructure and employment rates in Essex were not taken into consideration when compiling the scenerios.

The report, which was approved by cabinet members including leader Lord Hanningfield, said: “None of the scenerios are acceptable since they fail to reflect the impact of the severe UK economic recession on housing, employment, and infrastructure delivery.”

With regards to growth in Colchester, the report said: “The borough already has a challenging housing target to achieve under the existing East of England Plan including bringing forward complex, extensive, and difficult brownfield sites with the urban area of Colchester.”