ONE hundred new homes could be added to the 500 already planned for land west of Rayleigh.

The Timber Grove care home, run by national charity FitzRoy, in London Road, wants a new building as its current one is not fit for purpose.

One avenue being explored to fund the new building is getting a developer to build 90-100 new dwellings on land behind the home.

The site is adjacent to land where Countryside Properties had its outline application for 500 homes rejected by Rochford District Council’s development committee in January.

Neil Taggert, FitzRoy operations director, said: “Our current service at Timber Grove is suffering as the building is not fit for purpose.

“With this in mind, we have reached the conclusion that the best way for us to meet the changing needs of our residents in the longterm is to build a new home on the site.

“Currently, we are looking at options which mean there is minimum disruption to the residents’ lives.

“We haven’t reached a formal agreement with any builder, and no planning application has been submitted.

“Last week, we held an open meeting with Rayleigh Town Council to make ourselves available to anyone who wants to knowmore.

“As a charity we have strong links with the local community and we want to keep these links at the heart of all our proposals.”

At the meeting with Rayleigh Town Council, a representative from Landmark Town Planning told councillors about the plan for 90 to 100 one and two-bed flats and three and-four bed houses, with access from the unmade road currently used by the Rayleigh Town Sports and Social Club.

Jamie Burton, Ukip district councillor for Grange, said: “This latest application for a large-scale housing development in the west of Rayleigh, comes at a time when tensions are already running high over the proposed new homes situated north of the London Road.

“This will inevitably lead to further questions being asked about the adequacy of the surrounding infrastructure, particularly the roads, and the impact further homes in the area will have on school places and GP surgeries, not to mention the issues of flooding and air quality.

“I will be looking very closely at this latest proposal and asking my neighbours and constituents for their opinions and comments, although I do not expect this latest proposal to be well received by most residents.”