A BID to build housing on a golf driving range at Woodham Mortimer has suffered a setback after plans were refused.

Proposals for up to 18 homes off Burnham Road were given outline planning permission by Maldon District Council in February this year.

But the council has turned down an application showing detailed plans, which covers the development's appearance, scale, access and layout.

One objector said the site layout was "one of the worse I have seen in Maldon for quite some time" and described the application as "quite honestly shocking".

The application included 10 four and five-bedroom detached homes with garages, three three-bedroom detached and semi-detached homes with parking spaces, and five two-bedroom homes with parking.

Council planning officers had recommended the plans for refusal.

Their report said: "The significant percentage of larger dwellings is in clear conflict with the identified need of the district."

It added: "By positioning the affordable housing within the southeast corner of the site, where the properties appear shoehorned into the corner of a vast site does not create a form of development that is indivisible from the market dwellings.

"This is further exacerbated by the fact that the market dwellings are all larger, detached dwellings set within generous plots, whereas the affordable properties are of a much higher density, with smaller sizes and plots, and are concentrated in a much smaller area of the site."

Woodham Mortimer and Hazeleigh Parish Council had called for the plans to be refused due to the "unattractive design" which was "out of keeping" with the rural village.

There were also concerns over the single access road to the site.

The district council refused the application and said the development failed to provide a mix of housing that met the district's need.

It also ruled the layout would harm the character of the countryside and said the development's affordable housing was "cramped into the site".