AN appeal hearing over plans for 24 homes in a small rural village has been completed… with a decision on the site coming soon.

Q Developments is looking to build 24 homes on land south of Chapel Road in Ridgewell.

Plans were first submitted to Braintree Council in November 2022.

An appeal for 'non-determination' was later lodged by the applicant to the Planning Inspectorate.

This meant the council could no longer rule on the application, but still has to say what its decision would have been.

An appeal hearing for the case has now been completed, however, a final decision is yet to be issued.

Braintree Council says it would have refused the plans.

The council said the proposed development is located outside of any settlement boundary and would be an “encroachment to the countryside and unacceptable form of urbanisation of the rural setting of Ridgewell”.

The council also said the site is in an “inaccessible location”, and would represent an “unacceptable degree of hazard to all users of the highway, particularly cars and pedestrians seeking to access the site”.

Previous plans for 24 homes on the same site were refused.

Following this, the applicant re-submitted the same proposal.

The new application again seeks outline permission for up to 24 homes, which includes a mixture of detached, semi-detached and terraced properties.

The site is nearly four acres in size and located to the north-west of the village.

A single point of access off the A1017 Chapel Road is proposed for vehicles and pedestrians.

As the proposal is nearly identical to the previous application, planning officers said they “do not consider that the applicant has overcome the previous reasons for refusal”.

A number of residents have sent their views objecting to the proposal.

Concerns include the harm to wildlife, damage to green spaces and traffic fears.

One also voiced worries over access to the site, saying: “There is no safe way you can have a path to the village from this development.”