Basildon will grind to a halt if more than 15,000 homes are built within the next 20 years, residents fear.

Hundreds of people attended a drop-in session at the Eastgate Centre to have their say on Basildon Council's draft local plan, which includes a new A127 junction, schools, care homes and a hotel.

It sets out housing and employment sites, with more than 8,000 homes proposed for the town by 2034, and a further 600 to be built in Bowers Gifford.

Residents have raised concerns that the borough's roads are already struggling to cope at peak times, and should be revamped before thousands more homes are given the go-ahead.

Yvonne Turner, 65, of Ghyllgrove, Basildon, said: “I think it would be ridiculous for all these houses to be built without better infrastructure in Basildon.

“The town will just become gridlocked. It already is at rush hour without thousands more cars added to the mix. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

“There needs to be some proper investment on all the roads in the town, not just on the A127.”

David Benson, 53, of Swan Lane, Wickford, believes other parts of the borough will also feel the pressure of thousands of new homes.

Up to 3,300 are proposed for Wickford, and 1,860 for Billericay.

Mr Benson added: “I have lived here for 25 years and they just seem to keep building and building more and more houses, but they haven’t put in any infrastructure.

“There’s a large elderly community in Wickford but they haven’t built a new doctor’s surgery - you can wait up to three weeks for an appointment at the moment.

“Wickford seems to be Basildon’s poor cousin.”

Plans to revamp the town centre with restaurants, a new South Essex College, and a cinema in the Eastgate Centre are included in the plan.

The council also wants to build extra primary schools on new estates at Dry Street, Noak Bridge and Bowers Gifford.

Residential care or nursing homes form part of the proposals to build in Dunton and in Cranfield Park Road, Wickford.

More than a fifth of the 15,000 homes, about 3,660, would be classes as “affordable”, the draft plan suggests.

Saturday's drop-in session was part of an ongoing consultation with members of the public, which will run until Thursday, March 24.