PLANS have been submitted for nine new homes in the grounds of a former rural rectory - which the developers hope will be the second stage of bringing 'a small community back to the town of Mucking which was pretty much derelict for the past two decades'.

The scheme has been submitted on behalf of Barclay St James Planning is for nine homes in three blocks of new buildings, a detached 3 bay car port, new crossover and associated parking located at Wharf Road, Mucking, close to Stanford-le-Hope.

The site was previously the garden for The Old Rectory, a grade II listed building which has recently been permitted a change of use from C3 residential to B1 offices.

The garden was then separated from the building on the sale to the current owner.

The application says: "Mucking is of Anglo-Saxon origin and indicates human settlement for more than a millennium and also indicates settlement by Germanic invaders which occurred at an early date.

"In the Victorian times Mucking was a flourishing village with small shops, a large rectory, and the medieval church of St John the Baptist.

"Mucking marshes were previously used as landfill, covering hundreds of acres of formal gravel quarry, it was one of the largest landfills in Western Europe and had been filled with municipal and commercial waste, which floated thirty miles down the river Thames in barges to Mucking for decades.

"Changes in London Governance led to reassessments of London's waste strategy based on recycling and reducing the amount on landfill sites.

"Mucking Marshes landfill was granted an extension to receive waste until 2010.

"In 2012 the site was reclaimed for community and environmental use, this involved The Cory Environmental Trust, DP World port and the Essex Wildlife Trust working together to create the Thurrock Thameside Nature Park, which is a 120-acre wildlife site.

"In 2018, three properties formally owned by Cory Environmental which were being used as offices on a temporary lease from the local council, were sold at auction as domestic dwellings."

The current applicants add: "This has brought a small community back to the town which was pretty much derelict for the past two decades."

The full application can be viewed: here.

Updated: Scheme is rejected by officers.