LOCAL people are set to be given more power to contest unpopular council planning decisions.

Communities Secretary and Brentwood MP Eric Pickles unveiled his Localism Bill in Parliament yesterday.

This includes draft proposals to give local people more power to contest large-scale housing developments.

Full details of how this will work have still to be published, but residents hope it will help them stop authorities like Basildon Council selling playing fields across the district to housing developers.

Malcolm Buckley, Basildon Council cabinet member for environmental services, hoped the changes will not lead to too few homes being built across Essex.

He said: “There has to be a balance between recognising the valid reasons some people give for why certain developments should be stopped, but also accepting we need a certain number of new homes to accommodate people on the housing waiting list and young people who want to get on the housing ladder.”

The Bill will also mean scrapping government targets, which previously dictated how many new homes each council had to allow in their borough or district each year.

This was welcomed by Tory county councillor Ray Howard.

His local authority, Castle Point Council, struggled to accommodate the previous Labour government’s demand for 5,000 new homes by 2026.

Mr Howard said: “I welcome these changes if they mean local people and councillors, who have a much better understanding of how many homes we need locally, making decisions, rather than central government.”

The Bill will also make it easier for local people and organisations to buy public buildings, such as libraries, or key community hubs such as village shops or town centre pubs. The idea is they will then be able to run them themselves as co-operatives.

Communities will also be able to question how services, such as children’s centres, care homes and transport, are being run and potentially take them over.