A DECISION to refuse plans for almost 100 homes on farmland has been overturned by a planning inspector.

Braintree Council refused plans off Boars Tye Road in Silver End in 2021, arguing the site is in the countryside and falls outside of the defined village envelope.

The council had added the proposal would introduce a large number of homes where facilities and amenities are “beyond reasonable and safe walking distance of the site” and alternative modes of transport are difficult to access.

But the inspector said the site is suitable for housing – pointing out Silver End contains some key services such as shops, a post office, village hall, medical centre and school.

He added street-lit footways exist to the south-east of the site, along Boars Tye Road, leading to village amenities and facilities, as well as bus stops providing regular services to Witham and Halstead.

It comes after developers won permission to build 230 homes after Braintree Council was unable to demonstrate it has allocated enough land to cater for more than five years' worth of housing.

The planning inspector’s decision to allow the appeal grants outline application for Bellways plans on land north east of Rectory Lane in Rivenhall – initially refused by the district council in early 2022.

Braintree Council did not defend the appeal on the basis it could only demonstrate a 4.86 year supply of housing land, as opposed to the 5.1 years that it believed it could show at the time of refusing the planning application.

In a ruling deciding the Boars Tye Road appeal, the inspector said the latest decision would have been granted even if the council could demonstrate a five-year land supply.

The decision statement says: “There is a dispute between the main parties in respect of the council’s five-year supply of housing land.

“The council is of the opinion that it has sufficient supply, set out as 5.1 years. This was recently contested at appeal.

“The appellant sets out that this figure stands at 4.87 years.

“In either case, the housing land supply figure is close to 5 years. Even were I to accept that the council has sufficient supply, this does not change my conclusion in respect of the main issues.”