Plan for almost 60 homes submitted for paddock on outskirts of Clacton

Oakland Country Homes has applied for permission to build the homes on 6.4 acres of grassland south of Holland Road, Little Clacton.

Previous plans for 81 homes on the site were rejected by Tendring Council after the applicant failed to agree an appropriate level of affordable housing and other financial contributions.

The new plans for 58 homes – a mix of one-bedroom apartments and two and three-bedroom bungalows and houses - will include 18 affordable homes, roads, garages and public open space.

In a planning statement, the developer said: “The new homes will be a continuation of the existing street that ends at the northern edge of the Persimmon Homes development at Oakwood Park, but offer a change in character in order to deliver a strong sense of place.

“The suburban character is continued, but is coupled with traditional features from the Essex vernacular and the use of modern materials so that the scheme can easily be read as part of the expansion of the town in the first half of the 21st Century.”

The report added: “An area of public open space is placed in the centre of the site, and will be equipped with a play area for younger children.

“It will form the focus of the scheme and benefits from the surveillance created by the properties that surround it – bungalows to the north and south and houses and apartments on the opposite side of the street – making it secure and safe to use, as well as minimising opportunities for anti-social behaviour.”

The developer said the application site falls within the defined settlement boundary for Clacton and the principle of development was accepted as the previous refusal notice did not cite any other reasons other than affordable housing and financial contributions.

A report added that the development would mark the new edge of the town, with the Old Chicken Farm and Thorpe Road to the east, defining the edge of the “green gap” that separates Clacton from Little Clacton.