DISAPPOINTED campaigners have lost a three-year battle to stop KFC opening in a residential area of Laindon.

Laindon Holdings has won the right to open the restaurant and drive-through, in High Road, after an independent inspector overturned an earlier planning refusal.

More than 500 people objected, arguing the location was unsuitable for a fast-food chain.

Basildon Council’s planning committee had refused permission, but the applicants took the case to the Planning Inspectorate.

In her judgment, Government inspector Diane Fleming said: “I am conscious that the proposal has attracted widespread opposition locally.

“Many individual letters raise detailed concerns which can be addressed by specific conditions, and others encompass matters germane to the main issue on which this decision turns.

“I have taken into account those factors, but none are sufficient to alter the overall balance of my conclusion.”

Samantha Marsh, who lives in Laindon and is part of the group fighting against the proposals, believes Basildon Council should have been better prepared at the appeal hearing.

She said: “It wasn’t handled in the best way and I don’t feel they were 100 per cent behind getting it stopped.

“They didn’t come up with strong enough barriers to protect the local community.

“We have been fighting this for three years.

“It is devastating and does not make you feel like part of a democracy.”

In an official complaint letter to Basildon Council, Mrs Marsh said she felt the principal planning officer at the hearing “did not have the community’s best interests at heart”.

She also believes the council was under-represented.

In a letter to Mrs Marsh, chief executive Bala Mahendran said the complaint would be investigated by a council director, who would respond within ten days.

The end of a three-year fight

THE site of the new KFC is the Grade II-listed Laindon Hotel, which was demolished in 1991.

Laindon Holdings first applied for permission for a 24- hour KFC at the beginning of 2012, but the development was refused.

Later that year, a revised application was lodged with new opening times, but this was rejected again and an appeal was lodged.

In May 2013, a Government planning inspector upheld Basildon Council’s decision, agreeing the design and appearance of the restaurant were not suitable for the area.

A new plan in 2014 raised the height of the building and changed its style to a traditional brick design. But the council threw the proposals out for a third time last April.

Another appeal was launched and a public hearing was held in February.

The independent inspector reversed the council ruling, giving KFC the green light.