FEARS have been raised Canvey’s "struggling" infrastructure will fail to cope with 300 new homes on the old Dutch village site.

Persimmon Homes has opened a public consultation on proposals to build the homes on land east of Canvey Road, 40 per cent of which the developer has promised will be affordable.

The 6.8 hectares plot of land, identified in the council’s draft local plan as a site for development, is currently made up of an open field with shrubland to the north.

But critics of the scheme says the island is not ready for such large-scale development.

“Canvey does not have the infrastructure to take any more housing,” councillor Dave Blackwell, of the Canvey Island Independence Party, said.

“It’s not just roads. We don’t have the necessary drainage system or sewage system to cope with all these new houses they want to build. As soon as we get a downpour of rain the island floods.

“Until we spend huge amounts of money on improving roads, drainage and sewage, houses of that multitude should not be built on Canvey.

Persimmon Homes says it is “sensitive to historical flooding and drainage concerns” and is in “detailed discussions” with the council to mitigate risks.

The development will make use of detention basins (where rainwater is held during high rainfall) to protect the proposed new homes from flooding.

Vehicle access will be provided by a new roundabout on the A130 Canvey Road to the north of the existing Roscommon Way Roundabout.

Canvey’s poor road infrastructure and rush hour traffic has one resident sceptical of the plans.

Linda Norton said: “There isn’t the infrastructure to support it, simple as that. It’s absolutely ridiculous. You can’t get off the island as it is now, let alone with another 300 homes.

The 68-year-old added: “All my kids have moved because you can’t get off the island to go to work at rush hour.”

A Persimmon Homes spokesperson said: “Persimmon have chosen a roundabout as the best balance between capacity and safety. It has been assessed using traffic modelling software and has been shown to have 40 per cent spare capacity even after the development is added.”