DETERMINED developers have hit backwith a fresh planning appeal as they battle to build a major housing estate in Benfleet.

Fox Land and Property has turned to the Planning Inspectorate after Castle Point Council threw out an application for 140 homes at Glebelands in September.

It comes less thanamonth after a larger scheme for 165 homes on the same site was thrown out by the Court of Appeal because of concerns about damage to the green belt.

However, the land is now under threat once again.

Fed up campaigner Susan Buhr, of Jotmans Lane, Benfleet, said: “This is never-ending. To me, it is such a waste of taxpayers’ money to keep fighting off these developers.

“They’ve been turned down so many times before, so I don’t see why they think they’ve got a chance this time.

“It is all about money for these builders. They don’t live here so they don’t mind howmuch traffic and disruption this development will cause.”

Fox Land and Property, which first applied to build on Glebelands in 2010, previously tried to claim a change in policies meant there was no longer a green belt in Castle Point, but a judge sided with the council.

Clive Walter, Tory councillor for St George’s ward, said: “My stance hasn’t changed. Green belt is green belt. These developers have been turned down by the Court of Appeal, but they are persistent.

“They don’t care about our environment or over-burdened infrastructure. Enough is enough.”

The plans for 165 homes at Glebelands were passed by a Government planning inspector in 2012, but Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities, overturned the controversial ruling the following year.

Fox Land and Property hit back with the scaled back plans for 140 homes in summer, 2014.

Despite the victory earlier this month, the site will also be debated by Castle Point Council’s draft local plan task and finish group, after it was earmarked as somewhere to build up to 100 homes to meet Government housing targets.

Controversial plans to build 265 homes on a 35-acre site, south of Jotmans Lane, will go before a planning inspector in September.