A COUNCILLOR fears a controversial planning application will be passed as the council needs cash from the sale of the land to pay for Wickford’s new swimming pool.

Basildon Council is due to meet on Tuesday to vote on Keepmoat Homes’ application for 24 three and four bedroom homes in Radwinter Avenue, Wickford.

A decision to put off making a final decision at a meeting last month was branded “farcical”

by angry councillors and campaigners.

Council officers recommended the plans were passed, but councillors voted against. However, councillors could not agree on a specific reason to refuse the plans that fit in with the council’s planning policy, which meant the decision was deferred.

David Harrison, Wickford Independents’ councillor for Wickford Park, believes the council’s decision to sell the land to a developer in March 2013 makes the homes’ arrival a strong possibility.

Mr Harrison says the development is inappropriate, but worries the plans will be passed.

He said: “The council has clearly said it needs the money to fund work on the market facilities, gym and swimming pool refurbishment in the town.

“There’sarisk of flooding from nearby Nevendon Brook, and building work would endanger water vole living on the land. We all know Radwinter Avenue becomes over-run at times, and that the five exits proposed for the site make it a bad development.”

In 2006, the Wickford masterplan was approved but the council failed to find money for the new market, health centre, leisure centre and library. Then in 2013, the council decided to ring-fence cash from the sale of the land at Radwinter Avenue to pay for the regeneration scheme.

Keepmoat has said it is interested in buying the land – if planning permission is granted.

Planning committee chairman Stephen Hillier defended the decision to defer the application and said the money the council receive if planning permission is granted would not be a consideration.

The Tory councillor for Langdon Hills said: “The application will be judged on its merits in terms of planning policy.

The council getting a capital receipt from the sale of the land has no bearing. Financial implications of this kind are not allowed to be matters determining the application.

“In deferring the application, we were not accepting or rejecting it. We were simply asking for clarification on the points.”