Residents fear plans for a 178 house development on green belt land could be back on the table.

Those living near to land between Holy Family School and Catherine Road/Bowers Road, in Benfleet, have reported seeing surveyors on the site.

An application from Redrow Homes to build 178 houses on the land was turned down five years ago, but residents are fearful the owners of the site could be looking again to try to get permission for the development.

The land is owned by a consortium, including former Castle Point MP Bob Spink - despite him previously campaigning to save green belt land.

Residents are concerned that the land could be built on.

Jacqui Thornton, 56, of Catherine Road, Benfleet, claims that any proposed development would be detrimental to the town.

She said: “It is not a brown field site.

“The infrastructure is just not there to support the development – they are private roads and with the extra traffic they wouldn’t be able to take it.

“We will continue to fight against this plan, as we did before.

“We have 900 people in a Facebook group and we got 1,400 signatures on our last petition.

“Despite Spink and co moving forward in anticipation of getting their site in the local plan, the very recent updates to the planning framework actually improve the protection afforded to a site like ours.”

The Essex Badger Protection Group has confirmed that the site is home to several badgers, with a large sett and regular badger sightings.

Badgers are a protected species, meaning their presence could scupper any plans for building on the site.

Mr Spink was contacted about residents seeing surveyors on the land, but denied all knowledge of the development, stating he has “nothing to do with it”.

When plans were put forward in 2013 for the development, dubbed King John’s Wood, residents raised a number of concerns, including over development, traffic problems and the impact on wildlife and the plans were thrown out.