A CONTROVERSIAL planning application is having a second round of consultation starting today.

The Landowner Gent Fairhead and Co has applied for permission to develop an integrated waste management facility at Rivenhall Airfield.

James Abbott, Braintree Councillor for Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall, said the further consultation, which Essex County Council has organised to run from today until January 21, should not be held over the festive period.

He said it will “inevitably reduce the opportunities for local communities to comment”.

The application attracted representations from 600 people who wrote to the county council after a consultation earlier this year.

A county council spokesman confirmed the majority of the comments were negative.

Gent Fairhead and Co was granted planning permission for a development last year, but a new application to include a combined heat and power plant and paper pulping facility was introduced in September.