A campaigner has accused a car company of “creeping” on to the green belt.
Essex Ford won permission to build its new showroom on green belt at Rayleigh Weir in 2006, on the condition it contributed £300,000 to the building of a new fire station next door. The showroom relocated from another site on the Stadium Way trading estate at the Weir.
Now the company has applied to build a 104-space car park on green belt land next door, to provide space for vehicles while they are being serviced or repaired in the garage at the site.
It is the second application after Castle Point councillors turned it down in February.
In a letter objecting to the proposal, Simon Hart of Daws Heath-based Hands Off Our Greenbelt writes: “Why ask for more land now? Was this their original plan all along? To get there behind an improvement scheme, such as the fire station, then creep into the green belt?”
Nobody from Essex Auto Group, the company behind Essex Ford, was available to comment.
Council officers have advised councillors there are no more grounds for refusing the application, as the showroom and fire station have already ruined the character of the green belt in the area. Tuesday’s planning meeting will be at 7.30pm in Kiln Road.
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