A TOWN council has added £10,000 to its war chest as it ratchets up the fight to save beloved green spaces.

At a meeting last night (January 17), Loughton Town Council voted unanimously to add an extra £10,000 to its reserves as the deadline for Local Plan submissions looms.

By January 29, all challenges to Epping Forest District Council’s wide ranging plan, which could see 11,000 homes built across the area by 2033, must be submitted.

For Loughton residents and the majority of the town councillors, the burning issue remains proposals to build 154 homes on Jessel Green.

In a bid to ensure their submission has all the appropriate teeth, the town council wants to hire David Altaras, a specialist planning barrister who charges £350 an hour.

Enid Walsh, town council clerk, said: “The problem with employing a barrister is you pay per hour and you can’t estimate at the beginning how much money you are going to be spending on it.

“We have topped up our reserves so we have a good fighting fund.

“Loughton Town Council has, at the current time, £35,000 in a reserve earmarked for the preparation of our Neighbourhood Plan and for defence costs to fight the Local Plan.

“The Council has budgeted for an additional £10,000 of new money to top up this reserve.”

Mr Altaras will help the council challenge several of the plan’s points, including proposals to build close to the already over-crowded Central Line in the early stages.

Although the town council's submission and the Save Jessel Green campaign are seperate, at the heart of its challenge however, will be the protection of the field.

The barrister will argue that EFDC is wrong to treat the Green as ‘merely vacant land’ rather than a field ‘highly valued by the community’.

As such, the town council will suggest 450 planned dwellings be removed from Loughton and instead placed in the proposed garden town.

The additional £10,000 will be paid for through an increase in council tax, which will see a Band D home owner pay around £2 more a year.

As well as the Local Plan submission, reserve funds should cover work on a Neighbourhood Plan which will provide more detailed local planning policies on issues such as protection of open spaces and renewable energy.