There are plans to build 24 more houses in a village.

David Dedman, of Southend, has applied to demolish Rosedene Nurseries, in Barrow Hall Road, Barling Magna, and instead build a small estate of houses.

The houses, designed by Westcliff-based SK Architects, will all be three bedroom houses.

The application to Rochford District Council suggests that 15 will be private sales and eight will be for social housing, with a mix of shared ownership and rented.

One house would also be wheelchair accessible.

The nurseries closed recently and have been demolished.

Two bungalows that are currently on the site would also be knocked down.

Planning document prepared by the architects read: “The application site is located in the metropolitan green belt, within Rochford District Council area.

“However, it is land that has been previously developed and is situated in the middle of an existing residential settlement.

“The proposal will not trigger any further urban sprawl or disrupt green belt permanence and openness.

“The proposal is for an infill of previously developed land and would therefore not be harmful to the green belt.

“The proposal protects and enhances local valued landscape.

“It will remediate degraded and derelict land and represent an effective re-use of land that has been previously developed.

“The application site at present has no high environmental value of any rate.

“The proposal will enhance and protect biodiversity and green infrastructure and will also restore ecological networks and priority habitats.”

The East of England Plan requires that a minimum of 4,600 dwellings be built in Rochford District between 2001 and 2021 to meet the housing need of future generations.

There will be at least two parking spaces provided per house. Planning documents continue that the closed garden centre presents a gap which detracts from “otherwise very ordered and coherent residential settlement”.

There are three houses proposed along Barling Road and six along Barrow Hall Road.

A further 15 houses will be built to the rear of the site where the garden centre used to be and will be accessed from a new private road with two entrance and exit points along Barrow Hall Road.