“WE cannot cope” – that was the message families across the Rochford district battling to stop thousands of new homes being built in their towns and villages have sent to officials.

They were speaking on the second day of a planning inquiry into Rochford District Council’s core strategy document, which sets out where 5,500 new homes should be built in the coming years.

Representatives from residents’ groups and landowners attended the hearing to describe the document’s proposals as “unsustainable”.

Kerry Taylor, of the Hullbridge Action Group, said: “We are opposing the building on green belt land and the unsustainable number of houses which is being suggested – not just in Hullbridge.”

Hullbridge Action Group, Hawkwell and Hockley’s residents’ associations, Rawreth and Hawkwell parish councils, West Rochford Action Group and the Hockley Parish Plan Group all spoke out about the proposals.

Lib Dem district councillor Chris Black, Independent councillor John Mason and newly-elected Green Party councillor Michael Hoy also attended, representing Downhall and Rawreth, Hawkwell West and Hullbridge wards.

Mr Mason raised his electors’ concerns about extra traffic in Hawkwell West ward if the proposed 175 homes were built before 2015.

He said the council’s policy stated new development should aim to encourage fewer car journeys by residents, by building closer to workplaces and shops.

He added: “Speaking about south Hawkwell in particular, I am not sure those locations actually fulfil the requirements.”

Traffic and infrastructure were also issues for the Hawkwell Action Group’s 300 members, said its representative, Carol Dutton.

She said: “In Hawkwell, residents think the infrastructure needs have been grossly underestimated. They feel it difficult to justify a housing estate in Hawkwell. It is a small, semi-rural area and we find it totally inappropriate.”

The district has been told to find sites for the homes by 2025 under the former Labour government’s housing policy.

However it is not clear yet if the new Conservative Lib Dem coalition will keep the plans.

The hearings are expected to continue until Friday, May 21.

A PARISH council has suggested hundreds of homes could have been built within its parish boundaries, but not where the core strategy proposes.

Rawreth Parish Council said it had more suitable sites in mind than the ones earmarked in the document.

Alistir Matthews, speaking on behalf of the parish council, told the inquiry he felt one proposed site off London Road, Rawreth was not the best place to put 550 homes.

He said if homes were built in the centre of Rawreth instead, it would help the village to grow.

He explained: “We are offering an area in the middle of our village to produce a community of 300 houses.

“It is near a railway station and two bus routes. If you have those 300 homes to add to 100 or 150 in that area, it is enough there to support a local shop.

“We have playing fields and a village hall – just as many facilities there as on the land north of London Road, in my opinion.”

Steven Morris, from Clovelly Works, a company with a factory in Chelmsford Road, Rawreth, said: “Putting 300 houses in Rawreth would make the village more sustainable for the people. These people are taxpayers. They need to have a little bit more housing.

“They don’t want to be swamped, but something like that would give them the facilities they deserve.

“This is not a Nimby proposal. This is ‘yes, in my back yard’ proposal. I think David Cameron said politicians and authorities were here to be servants of the people not the other way round.”

Government inspector Laura Graham, who is presiding at the inquiry, said the council was able to explain how the various sites were appraised and decisions reached.

However, Shaun Scrutton, Rochford District Council’s head of planning, said: “The land which is being referred to in Rawreth is not land we feel appropriate for consideration.”

Mr Scrutton did not expand on the reasons the other site had been favoured.

DEVELOPERS have submitted a flood of applications to build houses across the Rochford district.

The council hopes its core strategy will give clearer guidelines about where houses can and cannot be built.

In the meantime, a series of applications has been submitted to Rochford District Council.

It recently rejected applications from developers Colonnade and David Wilson Homes.

Colonnade wanted to build 326 homes at Coombes Farm, off Stambridge Road, Rocheway and Mill Lane, Rochford. The developers have appealed against the council’s decision. David Wilson Homes wants to build 330 homes on green belt land in Hawkwell.

The houses, including some three-storey buildings and a medical centre are proposed for land between Main Road, Rectory Road and Clements Hall Way.

Another developer, Bellway Homes, has also recently submitted plans to build 600 homes on green belt land between Hall Road and Ironwell Lane, Rochford, to the west of the town.

THE sites where thousands of houses could be built have still to be finalised.

Details of the specific sites will be in the Allocations Development Plan Document – a separate document, which has yet to be agreed.

Several potential sites have proved very controversial, with more than 700 people writing to oppose one of the council’s proposals, for 500 homes in Hullbridge, near Watery Lane.

More than a quarter of Hullbridge’s 2,560 villagers have joined the campaign led by the Hullbridge Action Group. The core strategy document also sets out plans for where the 18 travellers pitches the council has been told to provide could go.

Plans for traveller sites in Plumberow Avenue and New Park Road, Hockley, caused an outcry when they were revealed at a public meeting.

Between now and October, the council will collate the response from the public.

The revised core strategy document will then go through another round of public consultation before a final version is agreed.

PROPOSALS to flatten two industrial estates to make way for houses came under attack at the inquiry.

One option in the strategy would use the sites of Hockley’s Eldon Way and the Foundry Industrial estates for housing.

Tim Gleadall, representing residents from Hockley and Hawkwell, raised concerns about the plans at the inquiry. He said: “A residents’ survey was carried out and only one person in eight wanted redevelopment in Eldon Way and only one per cent wanted residential. This is going totally against what the residents want.

“We haven’t got the infrastructure for 150 houses, or 200 more cars using Spa Road which is already gridlocked in rush hour. People want Hockley to remain a village.”

The industrial estates were singled out because they are close to the railway line.