GREEN spaces between villages and towns in Tendring will be maintained in an effort to keep their identities.

Tendring Council’s Local Plan committee will add a policy to protect “green gaps” as part of its blueprint for future development.

The policy is still subject to public consultation later this year, but it is hoped it will prevent villages and towns from being merged.

Carlo Guglielmi, Tendring Council’s planning boss , said: “The policy safeguards villages and towns and allows them to retain their identity .

“With all the developments we are getting on the Colchester and Tendring border, the green gap polic y has to be in place .

“It will be sometime, however, before the policy will be put in place.”