UNUSED sites in built-up areas could be the answer for future developments in the Manningtree area, according to a councillor.

Mark Morsley, chairman of Manningtree Town Council’s planning committee, has called for some dilapidated brownfield sites to be examined.

Tendring Council is currently working on its blueprint for the future, which would potentially see 12,000 homes built across the district.

Mr Morsley said: “I am not sure that all other avenues regarding homes and where they are built have been fully examined.

“If agricultural land can get change of use, then why can that not happen to land with business use?

“There are large areas along the Station Road in Manningtree that are unused and dilapidated. It does not always have to be green belt land.”

Carlo Guglielmi, Tendring Council’s planning boss and chairman of the local plan committee, said: “We just don’t have enough brownfield sites .

“Every site that has been put forward in the emerging Local Plan has been subject to a viability study.”

Mr Guglielmi said if the brownfield sides were not suitable, they were not included in the Local Plan.

  • Mark Morsley and Carlo Guglielmi are standing for election to Tendring Council on May. For a full list of candidates click here.