A community action group has lost its fight to register an area of land near its estate as a village green.

Residents of Teign Road, Witham, applied for the measure in May 2013 after a housing development threatened to turn their quiet cul-de-sac into a busy access road.

Land off Blunts Hall Road, next to Teign Drive, had been earmarked for a development of 50 new houses as part of Braintree Council’s Local Development Framework.

Ken Davies, chairman of the Humber Road Estate Community Initiative, backed the move and said he was dissapointed village green status had not been accepted.

He said: “There seems to be no real reason why it shouldn’t have been granted. You have got to show that its been used for recreational purposes for 20 years and we have definitely shown that."