THREE new garden communities across Colchester and Tendring could include 22 primary schools and 55 GPs, a report has revealed.

The garden communities have been proposed at the Tendring/Colchester border, West Tey and west of Braintree and will have up to 43,000 homes between them.

Braintree, Colchester, Tendring and Essex councils have published a series of reports to show the projects are sustainable.

A report by engineering company Aecom shows an idea of what facilities could be built at each garden community.

It is the first time the public has been able to see an estimate of how many vital schools and surgeries could be built.

The figures show:

  • West of Braintree Garden Community: seven primary schools, one secondary school and 17 GPs
  • Tendring/Colchester Borders: four primary schools, one secondary school and 10 GPs
  • West Tey: 11 primary schools and 28 GPs with the number of secondary schools subject to discussion

There will be 55 General Practitioners working collaboratively in primary care hubs which will be home to community pharmacists, nurses, therapists and paramedics as well as GPs.

It is assumed primary schools would each create 210 places per first entry and secondary schools would create 150 places per first entry.

A “rapid transport system” has also been suggested to provide buses every eight minutes.

Across three sites it is estimated more than £343 million will be spent on education, £72 million on healthcare and £498 million on transport.

William Sunnucks, from the Campaign Against Urban Sprawl in Essex, said it had concerns about where the money would come from to pay for the infrastructure.

He said: “What benefit will there be for existing communities? The new schools and surgeries highlighted are for a new population and we fear that existing communities will be left behind.

“There will be no new hospital, congested roads and an overcrowded Great Eastern Mainline. Essex has a massive infrastructure deficit, and any new plan needs to address this.”