UP until now, the developers behind the West Tey garden village development and have remained mostly silent.

All the noise has come from council bosses in Colchester, Tendring, Braintree and Essex who believe the model of building brand new towns with infrastructure in place before the first set of keys are handed over is the way to meet housebuilding targets, and campaigners determined this is not the best way forward.

But all the while, a masterplan for the new town which in a few decades time could be roughly the same size as Bury St Edmunds between Colchester and Braintree is being drawn up.

The team is made up of the people who own the land where the 16,858 town will be built Gateway120, housing association and developers L&Q and planning promotion company Cirrus Land.

They are convinced this method is the right one, and have been scouring Europe to try and find ways to create a town designed and built entirely for the modern age.

Some of L&Q’s newest London homes use a vacuum waste disposal system popular on some parts of the continent which limits the need for refuse trucks.

Residents simply separate their rubbish into categories and post them through communal units.

Spokesman for Gateway120 Adam Dixon-Smith said: “This is a fantastic example of something which could not be done purely on a development of 350 houses on the outskirts of Feering, or something similar.

“New technology can be looked at and we can build something at West Tey for the 21st century, not something which was outdated 20 years ago.”

Starting from scratch, they say, will allow them to promote cycling and walking as a more viable mode of transport.

Rather than adapting a road designed near enough exclusively for cars, they could create purpose built cycle paths with facilities in easy reach of the homes.

Cirrus Land director Robert Vestentoft said: “What we can do is carefully design it so it all fits together.

“We want a lot of green space and employment land which is at the very centre of the whole garden city idea.

“We won’t have to be redesigning a street to make it better for cycling, we can design it that way first and it will be like that from day one.”

Developers L&Q manage more than 90,000 homes in the South East of England and want to ensure there is affordable homes at West Tey for local people.

Spokesman John Wafer said: “We are not just going to build these houses and walk away.

“We want to offer affordable housing where local people can buy their own homes and have shared ownership schemes.

“That is the difference between what we do and other developers.”

Lord Kerslake, one of the country’s leading housing experts – a previous head of the Civil Service and chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency - was commissioned to undertake a review of the plans for West Tey, and new towns to the west of Braintree and on the Colchester, Tendring border.

He said West Tey was the most complex of the three schemes and its success would depend on the upgrading of the A120.

Mr Wafer said he did not believe it to be strictly accurate, but backed plans for the improvements on the notorious stretch of road.

He said: “We welcomed the report and the observations which were in it.

“But we believe we could deliver parts of the project without the A120 being upgraded, but of course we are in support of a dualling and will be making representations to Highways England about it.

"It is one of the most dangerous roads in the country, of course anything to make it safer has to be welcomed."

Mr Vestentoft said: “Another items in the Kerslake report said the project was the most complicated because of the makeup of the ownership.

“The fact is all the land is now in the hands of the Gateway120 consortium and there is no issue with developing the land for the new community.”

The team are determined to make the homes fit in with the surrounding areas and homes will feature a mixture of modern looking houses, as well as more traditional dwellings.

They are also in long discussions with various parish councils which will continue in the future and say they understand the fears of campaigners determined to stop development going ahead.