ROADS will struggle to cope if plans to knock down a care home to make way for a housing estate go ahead, according to campaigners.

Plans have been submitted to demolish Timber Grove, off London Road, Rayleigh, and redevelop the site with a new 13-bedroom care home and 83 homes.

The application has sparked fears over traffic chaos, poor road infrastructure and air pollution.

It comes after proposals for 500 homes on another plot of land off London Road were approved by Rochford Council.

Richard Lambourne, chairman of Rayleigh Action Group, said: “I would have been for the application, but there are about four major developments in a 100 yard stretch of London Road and they have not done anything about the roads to make it safe.

“From my experience work will go on for three, four, five years. It is going to be an absolute nightmare, especially with construction traffic.

“We can’t stop it because it is land that is designated to be built on, but I will be objecting.

“However, it is a mix of housing which is what people have been asking for.”

The application includes two, three, four and five bedroom houses, as well as one and two bedroom flats.

James Newport, Lib Dem councillor for Sweyne Park and Grange, said: “I don’t think we have the necessary infrastructure for this development. We may be in need of more houses, but they should be dispersed across the district.

“Also, looking at air pollution, Rayleigh is already above the limit. As a party, we are pressing to have London Road included in the air quality monitoring. If it was found to be above the legal limit, the council can’t allow developments there.

The area regularly has queues with traffic and the roads are jammed constantly at peak times.”

Jim Cripps, 69, of Durham Way, Rayleigh, added: “If it gets approved we could have two simultaneous construction sites with London Road as the only access road and we will have construction for two or three years.

“It worries me that applications get looked at individually, they never look at them collectively.

“London Road already has major problems in rush hour. In the short term it will be traffic but the long term problems will be doctors, dentists, hospital spaces and everything else.”

As the plans are in the early stages, it is not known what will happen to Timber Grove residents while work is underway.