More than 400 homes are set to be built on green belt land despite concerns about drainage and the loss of protected Essex countryside.
Developer Mulberry Strategic Land (MSL) has been given the go ahead for the development on 54 acres (22 hectares) of land to the north of Southend Road in Corringham, Thurrock.
Thurrock Council’s planning committee approved an outline application, which will include a primary school, care home and supermarket, with homes up to three storeys high.
MSL said it revised its initial proposals following public consultation and concerns about traffic and road safety had led to the inclusion of new walking and cycling routes and low traffic street design.
The developer said there was a “serious need” for new homes in Thurrock, where nearly 5,000 people were on the social housing waiting list in 2024 and just 173 homes were completed between 2022 and 2023, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Permission for the development was granted despite Anglian Water raising concerns about drainage, and questions from councillors about whether the site could legitimately be described as “grey belt” land — areas within the green belt that were previously developed or did not strongly serve green belt purposes.
The meeting on Wednesday, heard from councillors opposed to the use of the land defined as “grey belt”, while another said the area’s “housing pressures outweighed the objections”.
The outline application was approved at the meeting.
Mulberry Strategic Land have been given the green light to build 412 homes on Green Belt land in Corringham, despite councillors raising concerns about drainage and the loss of protected countryside.
Thurrock Council’s planning committee approved an outline application by Mulberry Strategic Land for the development on 54 acres of land to the north of Southend Road.
Plans for the site include a new primary school, a care home and a 2,000 square metre supermarket, with homes set at up to three storeys high. The development is intended to be a mixed use neighbourhood at the north eastern edge of the town.
Permission was granted despite Anglian Water raising concerns about drainage, and questions from councillors over whether the site could legitimately be described as “grey belt” land — areas within the green belt that are previously developed or do not strongly serve green belt purposes.
Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday, Independent councillor Roy Jones, who represents Stanford East and Corringham Town, said the application conflicted with long standing planning policy.
“I have got big issues with this application,” he said. “It’s pure metropolitan Green Belt. A report in 2019 stated that this land is there to restrict urban sprawl. We spend lots of money on reports and inquiries and then this comes back and we just ignore the law.”
Conservative councillor Jacqui Maney, for Aveley and Uplands, quoted from a previous description of the area, arguing it did not meet the definition of grey belt.
“The farmland to the north and east of Corringham is a mix of arable and pastoral fields, well defined by hedgerows and trees,” she said. “Nothing in that statement says grey belt to me at all.”
However, Labour councillor Steve Liddiard, who represents Tilbury St Chads, said the borough’s housing pressures outweighed the objections.
“It is Green Belt, but it is an enclosed space and we do need to build lots of houses,” he said. “We need more than 20,000 homes over 20 years. Many of the issues raised can be dealt with by conditions, so I’ll be voting in favour.”
Mulberry Strategic Land said it had revised its proposals following public consultation earlier this year. The developer said concerns over traffic and road safety had led to the inclusion of new walking and cycling routes and low traffic street design.
It also said all buildings would be located outside identified flood risk zones.
The developer said there was a “serious need” for new homes in Thurrock, where nearly 5,000 people were on the social housing waiting list in 2024 and just 173 homes were completed between 2022 and 2023.
