RESIDENTS are fighting to stop blocks of flats being built just feet from their homes.

Millward Developments Ltd wants to build two, three-storey blocks of flats on land between Prince Avenue and Hampton Gardens in Southend, replacing workshop buildings and garages.

Residents of Hampton Gardens claim the plan represents a major overdevelopment.

Sandra Andrews, 73, said: “It really is an awful looking development from the plans.

“They’re proposing 12 flats with 12 parking spaces. This backs onto the shops in Prince Avenue and is squeezed in between the shops and our back gardens in Hampton Gardens.

“Not only is this unacceptable to us for many reasons – they will be approximately six feet from our gardens – but there are alleys through to Hampton Gardens from the A127 and Rochford Road which means the surplus cars and the visitors will park in our already overcrowded road.

“We as neighbours are fighting this tooth and nail. I don’t mind development, I wouldn’t be opposed to a one-storey building, but when you have a massive three storey block wanting to be built right outside my garden, it’s ridiculous.”

Simon Murdoch, 64, has lived on the road all of his life. He said: “I am not very happy about the height of the flats or the view of them I will see from my garden, I like to sit outside in the summer and enjoy my garden.

“I think they are too big and will be built too close to my back garden and I will lose my privacy. My house value will also fall as a result. My mother and I have continued to exercise our right of way by driving down the back of the houses to our concrete car port at the end and using it to access the shops at the Bell after commercial development. I am not at all happy that after all these years somebody has decided that I should not have that right anymore and blocked off my gates completely with a block of flats.”

Southend Council will decide at a later date.