RESIDENTS, wildlife campaigners and local councillors are continuing a battle to stop a housing development on an area of woodland in Thurrock which gave an adjacent housing development its name.

One angry resident has described the scheme as "frankly insane and is clearly of the 'make a fast buck and scarper' genre."

For more than a year Thurrock Council has been in receipt of a planning application to build a number of houses on land adjacent to Curling Lane, Helleborine and Meesons Lane in Grays.

The site is in the area of the Badgers Dene estate - named after badger setts that were throughout the area.

An enclave of setts remain on a wooded hilly area - which is where developers ZED Pods Ltd want to put their new prefabricated homes.

In a bid to win planning permission the developers have now dropped their planned development from ten to eight new homes - but objectors say that will still be the death knell for badgers that live on the site.

ZED Pods and their environmental advisors have claimed there are no active setts on their planned site - but residents, backed up by the Essex Badger Protection Group, say that is nonsense and the site is still a home for badgers.

That concern is shared by the area's three ward councillors on Thurrock Council, Cllrs Jane Pothecary, Tony Fish and Martin Kerin have all lodged their objections on a number of grounds - not least environmental ones.

They say: "This proposal represents a further loss of habitat for wildlife and green space for the people of Badger's Dene to enjoy.

"This area is renowned for orchids, badgers and other forms of wildlife who have sought haven from the more urban areas of Grays.

"Experts in badger conservation, Essex Badger Protection Group, have carried out their own survey of the site and determined there is an active badger sett and the proposal should be rejected on this basis.

"We understand that the ecological survey was conducted by Plumb Associates who do not seem to have any specific experience with badger conservation.

"The active foraging corridor in the proposal is not correctly sited for the existing badger sett and would not prevent the destruction of the sett.

"Residents report the active setts are located exactly where the ZED pods will stand in the bank."

The three councillors raise several other onbjections - and there has been a considerable number of residents who have made individual objections.

It also appears to be making use of Meesons Lane Management Company land, which is not this applicant's land to promise.

Among them is Mr Ciaran McDonagh of Button Road, Grays, who has considered the revised proposal but says: "Upon reading the latest revisions to this planning application,they haven't alleviated any of my concerns with this planning application and I object to this development most strongly.

"This development requires the excavation of land alongside the private part of Meesons Lane. This could seriously impact the integrity of the road both now and in the future. This is the only way in and out of the Meesons Lane development.

"Putting right subsidence and land slip would prove extremely costly.

"Also the erecting of an unsightly fence at the entrance to the private part of Meesons Lane is unacceptable.

"We lived in the Badgers Dene development before moving to Meesons Lane and saw these green areas as part of the development and a way to break up what could be seen as high density housing.

"I'm sure when Wimpey developed Badgers Dene, they would have built on this area if they saw fit. Building eight dwellings in such a small area brings a new meaning to the words 'high density housing'."

Dr Christopher Corrigan of Meesons Lane is equally irate about the application, saying: "This site is a natural badger habitat, as previously confirmed by the Essex Badger Trust in response to the original planning application and following a perfunctory and incorrect survey.

"It is therefore illegal to disturb or in any way harm these animals.

"The erecting of what amounts to garish, plastic Nissan huts on this site, which is wooded and has no water supply or sewerage drainage facilities is frankly insane and is clearly of the "make a fast buck and scarper " genre.

"These huts were originally designed as portable amenity lodgings to be placed, typically on stilts so that cars can be parked underneath, in open spaces adjacent to work places such as service centres and hospitals to provide temporary lodgings for employees.

"Pursuing this venture, which we all thought had been canned irrevocably already, will destroy, illegally, badger inhabited land the space abutting Meesons Lane and permanently deface the landscape."

Darren Parker, vice chair of Essex Badger protection Group, said: "Our group has records of setts in the area going back many years and group members in the area can attest to badgers being seen on this site on a regular basis.

"It is therefore out considered view that this sett remain in active use and we wish to strongly object to this planning application on the basis that it will cause serious harm to badgers and their sett."