JUST weeks after losing a planning appeal to build four new homes on a plot of rural land in Fobbing, applicants have come back to Thurrock Council with a new scheme on the same site which almost identical.

In August the planning inspector backed Thurrock Council's decision to refuse permission to build on green belt land on Patricia Drive, an unpaved track forming a public right of way, in the village.

The site comprises a paddock between a property known as Starlight and a landscaped area beside three neighbouring, newly built dwellings.

The inspector backed the council's initial refusal, saying the benefits of the new dwellings 'would not clearly outweigh the harm to the green belt by reason of inappropriateness, loss of openness and conflict with the purposes of safeguarding the countryside from encroachment and assisting in urban regeneration'.

In the original application the development was described as 'for over 55s' but the inspector concluded that wasn't supported or enforceable through the terms of the application.

An aerial view of the site used in both applications.

The design and planning statement submitted with the new application, appears almost identical to that previously submitted and rejected by the council and the planning inspectorate.

A planning statement with the new application, acknowledges the submissions are very similar, but it challenges the inspector's decision and says the inspector and the council did not object in respect of matters including living conditions and impacts on ecology.

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It adds: "The council did not find harm or development plan conflict in relation to several other matters."