DEFIANT councillors have blocked a housing development which they say could leave a large swathe of Wanstead and Woodford vulnerable to town centre-style developments.

A plan to demolish a Victorian house in Bedford Road, South Woodford, and build eight flats had previously been rejected four times by the council's regulatory committee on the grounds that the scheme was too dense.

But developer Lee Jose appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, which referred the application back to councillors after ruling it should be subject to more relaxed guidelines as it was close enough to a town centre.

This raised fears that residential streets currently protected against over-development could now be effectively urbanised.

But angry councillors rejected the application on Thursday and hit out at the Planning Inspectorate. Committee member Paul Canal said: "To allow a scheme such as this to drive a coach and horses through our own planning policies would be to encourage incremental urban destruction.

"Quite how the Planning Inspectorate saw fit to blatantly ignore local and regional planning guidelines and allow a scheme with urban density to be built in a suburban setting is beyond me."

Chair of the committee Cllr Richard Hoskins said: “The inspector’s decision to class Bedford Road as a town centre flies in the face of reality.

"We must not just roll over in the face of developers, however determined they are.

“I was delighted a majority of the committee supported me and refused the latest application.”

Campaigner Tom Jennings, of Bedford Road, said: "It is brilliant news. We were all shell shocked about it. The plan represented a risk of town centres spreading out so it’s great that it’s not been approved."

But Mr Jose criticised the committee and vowed to push the application through.

He said: "I wasn’t expecting it to be passed by the council because of their attitude to it but it’s a waste of taxpayer’s money.

"I’m now going to appeal to the Secretary of State and it’s going to cost the council thousands in costs because I’m likely to win."

But Cllr Canal said he believed a challenge to any appeal would be a worthy cause.

"We should fight fire with fire. To do otherwise is to abandon our suburbs to the bulldozer and concrete salesman," he added.

Greater London Assembly member Roger Evans is calling for guidelines to be changed to ensure suburban areas are protected from overdevelopment.

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