The leader of Basildon Borough Council says infrastructure problems associated with a Brentwood garden village planned up to its border will have to be tackled.

Councillor Andrew Baggott also says he does not recognise the response emanating from neighbouring councillors as being shared by their leader.

He said he would be asking Basildon residents their concerns over the potential for a large garden village of some 2,500 homes on their doorstep, adding that his relationship with Brentwood remains professional despite the “elephant in the room” represented by the large garden suburb that many believe to be in Brentwood by name only.

His comments come after two prominent Brentwood Conservative Councillors Keith Parker and John Kerslake said it was right that Brentwood was developing its own local plan independently of Basildon.

Cllr Kerslake said Brentwood was correct to be ploughing its own furrow while Cllr Parker told the same meeting on Tuesday that: “They missed their opportunity – we made the decision to go alone.”

Cllr Baggott said: “That response is certainly a different response to that of the conservations I’ve had formatively with the leader of Brentwood.”

He said that he would be asking Basildon residents their views though public meetings.

He said: “I want to have a meeting with the public who may be affected by Dunton to establish their views.

“The reality is that what I’ve been hearing is people are not happy and that Dunton may be built up to the boundary with Basildon which means people will be living there but the infrastructure costs will be with us.

“The reality is we can’t object to another borough building up to their border.

“There has to be a strategy of mitigation or to put us in a position of how we respond.

“We have to see of the art of what can be done and whether there is any form of mitigation that would allow us to get the infrastructure to support any development that happened there.”

The leader of Brentwood Council, Councillor Louise McKinlay, had previously also told Tuesday’s meeting: “We signed a Memorandum of Understanding, there is a lot of joint working that is taking place across the region.

“And in terms of what we have in our draft Local Plan for Dunton, that is within our borders. We are having discussions around the duty to cooperate and the infrastructure needed round that.

“But we are taking the decisions on what we believe is in the best interest of Brentwood just as they will do in Basildon.

“Clearly there are opportunities there and whether they, in response of their own Local Plan, choose to take advantage of that is up to them.”