Opponents to a recent application for 70 additional houses in Thaxted have said they are “prepared to go to the barricades” over the development.

The plans by Knight’s Developers for the properties on land south of Sampford Road have proved unpopular with residents, who argue that this latest addition to the 60 homes they are already building off the road brings the number of newly proposed buildings in the town to a thousand.

District councillor for Thaxted Martin Foley has campaigned tirelessly with campaign group Hands Off Thaxted (HOT) to put the brakes on increased housing in the town, which has around 2,500 inhabitants.

“Over the weekend news broke that a further chunk of countryside in the new Thaxted & The Eastons ward may be under threat from severe over development,” Cllr Foley told the Reporter.

“We are going to fight these plans all the way - we are prepared to go to the barricades over this.

“Greedy developers now seem to have gone into overdrive to spoil this beautiful area since the present Tory administration botched the local plan, wasted millions of pounds, lasted eight long years and left this district vulnerable to this sort of outrageous building frenzy.

“We do need some affordable homes but that is not what this all about at all. This is utter greed. These are the wrong sort of houses in the wrong place.”

Responses to the application are open till the end of April. To submit your comment, go to UTT/15/0954/OP.