PLANS to build a 370 home village on green space on the edge of Wickford has been unveiled, just weeks after Basildon Council rejected its long-term housing plan.

The plans for Shot Farm, on Southend Road, were submitted by London-based investment firm Acropolis Capital at the end of last week.

The proposals have been branded “gross overdevelopment” by councillors who fear the council could see more “speculative plans” submitted in coming weeks because of the lack of a local plan for Basildon.

The proposals would see 370 homes along with public open spaces, landscaping and car parking facilities, with the wooden and metal barns, sheds, and containers currently on the site bulldozed.

The site also contains two listed buildings – the Grade II listed Shot Farmhouse and the Barn at Shot Farm – which would be spared from demolition.

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Wickford councillor David Harrison said: “Now the local plan has been withdrawn we are now going to see developers taking a chance and putting in speculative applications for large-scale developments in the hopes they can force them through,.

“It feels like they are taking a chance and there will be a lot more of this in the future and I can see this happening across the borough.”

The application site was not allocated for homes in Basildon’s now-defunct 18,000 home local plan but does border land north of Southend Road which was fingered for 280 homes.

However, in planning documents, Acropolis Capital said: “In an authority where the adopted local plan is out of date, the preparation of the emerging local plan has stalled… these grave circumstances constitute the very special circumstances needed to warrant its release.”

Mr Harrison added: “There were protests across Billericay about large developments there which caused the local plan to be withdrawn, and now I fear those developers will think other parts of the borough are a free hit.

“Wickford Independents will be opposing this green belt development, but we fear what may happen if it goes to appeal.”

Access to the development would be provided from Southend Road, planning documents state.

Mr Harrison said: “If this went through it would have a major impact on the area’s infrastructure. There is no way the road network would cope.”