PLANNING chiefs are backing a revised proposal for 176 homes at Wyvern Farm, Stanway, to account for a different company building them.

Applicant, Mr William Vote, seeks to build a variety of 1,2,3 and 4-bed houses and apartments, 20 per cent of which will be affordable.

Wyvern Farm is a 12.6ha site west of Stane Park is between London Road and the A12. It is presently flat and mostly farmland, though it also contains farm buildings, which would be demolished.

A report prepared for Thursday’s meeting of Colchester Council’s planning committee said this latest application presents a revised set of house types from an approval granted for the entire site two years ago.

The change follows Charles Church now building the homes instead of Persimmon Homes for this part of the site. A 2014 application had granted planning permission for 358 units and indicated 170 on the current site.

The report said: “Bellway having acquired part of the wider Wyvern Farm site from Persimmon wished to introduce house type substitutions to differentiate their product from that of Persimmon.”

It added previous opposition from Stanway Parish Council still existed concerning traffic levels and the lack of amenity space, but officers said these had not changed since the original 2014 application had been approved.