CAMPAIGNERS who are fighting proposals for a new garden community at West Tey claim the land being allocated is not big enough to accommodate the number of homes proposed.

Colchester Council has allocated 727 hectares of land to build 24,000 homes up until 2033.

However, the Campaign Against Urban Sprawl in Essex (Cause) contests the figures and suggests the land would only be big enough for about 17,000 homes.

Rosie Pearson, Causes’s secretary, said: “Having scaled up these plans it is clear the residential areas on the plan only total approximately 530 hectares - nearly 200 hectares short.

“In our view, if the council persists with this plan it would mean the consultation is fundamentally flawed and invalid, as the public are being encouraged to believe they are looking at the maximum extent of development when they are not.

“There will be a further 200 hectares of residential land required and a corresponding reduction in green space.”

There is an ongoing consultation showing options for garden communities and Cause feels this should be suspended until the ‘error’ is corrected.

Colchester Council said the maps are not intended to be scaled and measured at this point.

A spokesman said: “We are confident the Concept Framework for West Tey is a robust basis for the Issues and Options consultation and roundly demonstrates the accommodation of 24,000 homes.

“The diagrams are purposefully illustrative, it would simply not be possible to show how infrastructure within the garden community could be located, if everything was drawn to scale.

“The diagrams are not a master plan for the garden community and are not intended to be scaled and measured.

“They are composed and presented in this way precisely because it is not appropriate to infer precise boundaries and alignments at this stage.

“The concept framework is the first stage of a more detailed master planning process which will take place through further community consultation and local engagement.

“Eventually, this process will result in plans that are more detailed than those contained in the Issues and Options consultation document, but this is not possible until proper consultation has taken place.”