THE chairman of the committee which rubber stamped Basildon’s future housing scheme has come under fire for saying it could “ruin” the town.

Ukip leader Linda Allport-Hodge took to Twitter to voice concerns over the local plan which will see 18,000 new homes built in Basildon in the coming years.

The controversial plans were passed after criticism from Billericay residents who will have 3,000 more homes.

But Mrs Allport-Hodge tweeted that the whole borough would be affected and reminded residents the Government was waiting in the wings to take over local plans from authorities which failed to deliver them on time.

She tweeted: “It is going to ruin the Basildon borough not just Billericay. Personal views are irrelevant when the local authorities are being forced to deliver this quantum of development.

“I take it you haven’t been following the fact #Basildon is on the naughty step with Secretary of State?”

Following the tweet Mrs Allport-Hodge explained councils had been forced to find room for Government housing quotas. She said the impact on all areas could be considerable if sufficient planning is not put into infrastructure to cope with the influx.

She said: “The quantity of development is of great concern to residents. We need to make sure the infrastructure is developed. The plan distributes homes across the entire borough, not just Billericay so there are concerns across the entire borough.

“The secretary of state is being very mindful of how things are developing. The day after full council we received a letter saying we need to keep to the timetable which we have.”

Mrs Allport-Hodge added: “The message we had from the consultation loud and clear was that its got to infrastructure first.

“We have participated in the South Essex 2015 Partnership with all the local authorities within the housing area with a view to collaborating on a strategy so looking at infrastructure like the A13 and the A127.”

Mike Andrews, from the Billericay Action Group, said: “The issue is the plan has got to be sustainable for the borough.

“The plan they have come up with doesn’t do that, particularly for Billericay but for the whole borough.

“They need to come up with a plan for the whole borough.

“They say they are going to build infrastructure first but I’m not sure they can do that. Developers will decide when they want to make money.

“Where in any government document does it say councils can insist infrastructure is in place first? They haven’t identified any infrastructure in the local plan.”