A DEVELOPER has been cleared to submit plans for a 600 home development in Bocking after Braintree Council decided an environmental impact assessment on the site was not required.

An application for a screening opinion request was submitted by David Locke Associates on behalf of The Unex Group for the former golf course and equestrian centre, Towerlands Park, off of Panfield Lane, Bocking.

Plans will include 600 new homes, a percentage of which will be affordable, a stand-alone early year’s facility and nursery, shops and recreational outdoor space.

A primary school could also be built on the development, or a contribution would be made towards provision locally.

Despite the scale of the proposals, council officers decided it would not be necessary for the developer to submit an environmental impact statement or an environmental statement.

The report states that the council feel the development would not have a “complex” or “hazardous” effect on the environment in the area and said the development was not within a “particularly environmentally sensitive or vulnerable location”.

Towerlands Park was a popular leisure facility before it closed in 2012. The land had been identified as a strategic growth location in Braintree Council’s draft local plan.

The Unex Group is now free to submit a full or outline planning application to Braintree Council for consideration.