PLANS to build a Greggs bakery as part of a major redevelopment of a garden centre were dropped just as councillors gave the scheme the green light.

Travis Perkins has been given permission to bulldoze Basildon Garden and Mower Centre in Nevendon Road to make way for a new branch.

However, proposals to replace the existing garden café with a Greggs bakery were dropped after the plans were initially deferred over noise concerns.

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The café will still be demolished, but there will be no replacement built.

A Travis Perkins spokesman said Greggs had pulled out of the proposals.

The new Tavis Perkins site will feature a store, parking, material storage and a tool hire compound.

Basildon Council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve the scheme on Wednesday evening – more than a month after it was initially due to decide on the plans.

Councillor Kerry Smith claimed “committee hand-wringing” had” unnecessarily” delayed the decision by more than a month.

“We have taken an age to give an answer for this, and now the proposal has one less business, one less stream of income for the economy, than it did at first,” he said.

“All because of concerns over noise on what is already an industrial estate. It's bonkers.”

The new Travis Perkins store will replace the existing branch in Laindon North Industrial Estate, which is set to close with jobs being transferred over to the new site.

Basildon councillor Craig Rimmer, responsible for regeneration, said: “It’s great news for Pitsea, brining a potential job maker and economic boost into the area while protecting jobs at the Laindon branch.”

Mr Rimmer said the council was satisfied Travis Perkins had taken steps to ensure concerns over noise pollution were addressed, with plans for an acoustic fence on the northern perimeter of the site.

A representative for Travis Perkins told the meeting: “This application should be viewed as an opportunity to sustainably improve and modernise the site.

“The proposal will protect existing jobs and represents a significant investment in a growing local business.”

He added the firm had taken steps to reduce the scheme’s environmental impact, with provisions for 280 square metres of solar panels on its roof – generating enough power to “entirely offset the branch’s annual electrical consumption.”

Greggs was contacted for comment.