BIG decisions on whether or not hundreds of homes will be built on green belt land will not be made until early next year, it has been revealed.

Anxious campaigners were hoping for decisions this month, but will now have to wait to find out if homes will be developed on land off Glebelands and Jotmans Lane, Benfleet.

Castle Point councillors threw out proposals for 140 homes at Glebelands earlier this year.

But Fox Land and Property, which put in the application, will now go before the Court of Appeal in the new year over previous plans to build 165 houses on the land – a plan first rejected in 2012.

Meanwhile, developer Persimmon Homes will go headto- head with Castle Point Council at a planning inquiry set for next February.

This is over plans to build 265 homes on 21 acres of green belt land off of Jotmans Lane, which the council turned down in October 2013.

Both sites have been earmarked for potential housing in the council’s draft local plan.

This is being shaped by a group of ten cross-party councillors who make up a task and finish group.

Glebelands campaigner John Guest, 64, said: “It would be lovely to have a local plan in place that isn’t going to build on greenbelt sites.

“These developers have been going at this for years, trying to build on the green belt, but it is the residents of the borough who knowwhat they want.”

Jotmans Farm campaigner Tom Smith, 57, of Shorefields, Benfleet, said: “We are all deflated and it is still in the draft local plan.

“It seems this task and finish group are not taking notice of any of the answers from thousands of people to the consultation.

It is hard to keep up momentum with all these delays.”

However Norman Smith, chairman of the task and finish group, said there was still months of work ahead.

He said: “We do have a set agenda we are working to and that will conclude in a recommendation to full council as soon as that work is done. At the end of the day we cannot be rushing.

“It’s important we look at the consultation responses and analyse them and make a recommendation.

“It would be wrong to rush through this piece of work and miss essential responses. It’s going to be another couple of months at least.”