PLANS to build a new 255-home estate in a village have been thrown out by planners.

Bloor Homes submitted an application to Colchester Council for the homes on land off Maldon Road, Tiptree.

The plans included parking, public open space, a link road and parent drop-off area for Tiptree Heath Primary School.

Thirty per cent of the homes would have been ‘affordable’.

A planning statement from the developers said there would be pockets of green space throughout the site, as well as public open space.

But planners rejected the bid amid concerns it would create a “harmful urbanisation” of the village.

The decision said: “The proposed development site would result in a measurable increased coalescence between the main Tiptree settlement and the hamlet of Tiptree Heath.

“Furthermore it is considered the development would result in the harmful urbanisation of the settlement edge, which is currently characterised by modest buildings interspersed with intervening significant areas of undeveloped countryside.”

Residents had raised concerns over traffic and the impact on schools and GP surgeries.