RESIDENTS have praised a council after a developer’s hopes to build a new estate on greenbelt land were dashed.

A decision eight months in the making saw Basildon Council reject Millwood Designer Homes’ proposals for 27 new homes on land north of Linda Gardens, in Billericay.

It comes one month after Persimmon Homes’ attempt to up 265 homes on greenbelt land in Jotmans Lane, Benfleet was quashed by Castle Point Council.

Developers Millwood Designer Homes, based in Tonbridge, Kent, who submitted their Billericay plans in October, claimed the development would create a “high quality living environment.”

But Basildon Council on Thursday threw out the proposals because it was an “inappropriate development in the green belt.”

Planning and regulation officer Phil Eastel said the bid was also refused owed to a lack of information surrounding provisions for affordable housing, and the loss of open space.

Chris Woodward, 29, office worker, who lives in Billericay High Street welcomed the decision.

He said: “There has been a lot of talk about these plans in the town for a long time, people are relieved.

“We don’t have a lot of green space here so it’s pleasing the council are doing their job to protect it.

“The difficulty is that developers are just so determined to build they are planning application machines, just churning out application after application around the UK until they get a hit.”

Mr Eastel said: “The proposed development represents inappropriate development in the Green Belt, which is by definition harmful and prejudicial to the openness of the Green Belt.

“The proposal would result in the loss of an allocated open space, and does not seek to provide any open space within the development.”

The outline planning application cited 84 parking spaces provided for the houses as well as “plentiful” cycle parking.

Included in the plans were a total of seven affordable homes, made up of two one-bedroom flats, two two-bedroom flats, one two-bedroom house and two three-bedroom houses.