Cressing Parish Council is hoping to draw up a neighbourhood plan so villagers can have more of a say on housing proposals near to them.

The parish council wants to set up planning policies for the village after it has come under increasing pressure from developers.

Chairman Anton Liebscher said: “A neighbourhood plan has got the have the same general policies as the district council’s plan but we can be more specific about where we want to develop and how we want to develop it.

“We are quite keen that the local community should have an input on what is going where and when.

“There has been pressure to develop and I think what we would like to see is development that fits in rather than shouting no at the developers.”

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.