DEVASTATED villagers claim their “lives have been ruined” after plans for more than 650 homes were approved.

Two separate schemes for hundreds of houses on land off Bromley Road, in Lawford, and between Long Road and Clacton Road, in Mistley, were given the go ahead by Tendring Council’s planning committee on Tuesday night.

Parish councillors claim the plans will “destroy” the green gap between two villages.

Plans by Tendring Farms for 300 homes on greenfield land in Mistley were approved by the council after it withdrew its original opposition.

The plans has been due to go before a planning inspector following an appeal and it was feared the council would lose the case and would be subject to hefty costs if it did not approve the plans.

Mistley Parish Council, Lawford Parish Council and Manningtree Town Council all objected to the proposal, and there were 75 letters and a 217-name petition against it.

Rose Builders’ plans for 360 homes on a neighbouring site off Bromley Road, in Lawford, were also given the green light despite 200 individual letters and emails, and a petition signed by more than 200 residents, objecting to the proposal.

They raised fears, including the loss of greenfield land, increased traffic and the impact on services.

Penny Myers set up the protest group Lawford Choice to rally against the plans for land off Bromley Road.

She said: “We’re devastated by the decision. It was a case of fighting the rising tide.

“This will ruin our lives in the sense we will be living on the edge of a 660-large housing estate – not what many of us moved here for.

“Putting emotions aside, it is a strain on the doctors’ surgeries and the traffic will be chaos.”

Stuart Barns, of School Lane, Lawford, said he was concerned about the cumulative impact of large developments in the area on the A137 Manningtree underpass and on Long Road, Lawford.

He added there was a lack of an up-to- date report predicting the effects of the developments on the road network.

“Public safety has been put at risk for the sake of meeting development targets,” said Mr Barns.

But developer Steven Rose said his plans included benefits such as future-proofing Lawford Primary School with extra land for expansion, as well as providing a community building and a new, safer school entrance away from the busy Long Road, a new village green, public open space and a playground.

“This is not an application from a land promoter nor speculative land agent, it is not an attempt to grab something opportunistically out of the district’s current planning status,” he said.

“This application is the culmination of direct engagement with the key stakeholders in Lawford.

“There is huge the demand for decent, well-designed new housing in Lawford.

“These are homes and improvements that will endure and people will say in a 100 years’ time that they are proud to live at Lawford Green – and proud to call it their home.”

The scheme will also see £45,000 contributed towards the £150,000 fund for traffic management measures at Manningtree underpass and houses handed to the Lawford Enterprise Trust Housing.