BATTLE-WORN residents are steeling themselves for another fight after developers revived plans for 100 new homes on green belt land.

The Squier family and Croll Group, who own fields south of Brays Lane, Rochford, have resurrected their controversial proposals to develop the land.

The original bid was withdrawn by the developers earlier this year following a string of objections from residents and Rochford District Council officers.

Company bosses insist they have now ironed out the creases and are confident of success.

However, fed-up people living nearby say they are prepared to fight to preserve the green belt.

Peggy Jacobs, 67, of Spencer Gardens, said: “I don’t think anything should be built there.

“It’s quite a crowded area as it is, so anything more is only going to make it worse.”

Julie Manners, 34, of Golden Cross Road, added: “With the school so close, it’s going to be a real problem with traffic.”

The first application, submitted last June, asked for 150 homes spread out over fields to the north and south of Brays Lane. It was withdrawn in February, after residents started an action group to campaign against it and council officers raised fears about the number of homes.

Now the trimmed-down version of the plans sits within a pocket of land between Brays Lane and King Edmund’s School.

Humphrey Squier, one of the landowners and chairman of the Rochford chamber of trade, said he and his partners had made the changes to fit comfortably within the housing limits set out in Rochford District Council’s core strategy – the authority’s blueprint for the location of new homes in the area.

The strategy, which is still to be approved by the Government, ruled the number of new developments in and around Rochford before 2016 should be capped at 349 homes.

The new bid also features a Section 106 agreement, which binds the developers to paying for a new entrance to the school from Brays Lane, a bus turning circle and a car park to alleviate congestion fears around the school.

Mr Squier said: “There has been an ongoing dialogue with the council.

“There are always going to be objections, but I think it satisfies a lot of the comments and concerns which were raised last time.”