A businessman told a planning inquiry he would be heartbroken if his company's planning appeal to secure a £2.5 million expansion deal fails.

Jack Russell, managing director of Courtenham Warehouse and Distribution, wants to move from his current site at Four Ashes in Blackmore End to purpose-built headquarters in Braintree.

He told the planning hearing at Braintree Council headquarters yesterday that unless his appeal was successful his company would not be able to relocate and expansion plans could not go ahead.

The company says it can only fund the move by selling off its current base for housing development but Braintree Council earmarked the site for commercial use and refused planning permission for the homes in July last year.

Courtenham appealed against the move at the inquiry yesterday.

Speaking after the hearing Mr Russell said: "I will be bitterly disappointed if we do not win. At the moment we are doing well but we have lost business because of our location. If we move we can increase our operation by a third in the next two to three years.

"We cannot sell the land as a commercial unit because no-one is interested in locating to the site which is harder to access from the major roads than the new industrial units."

At the planning inquiry, Christopher Katkowski, QC, representing the company agreed residential homes would breach the local plan but said it would cut the number of lorries in the area.

He said: "Surely it is better to have a residential area which fits in with the countryside than the number of HGVs using the lanes at present."

But although David Whipps, for the council, agreed with the benefits of reducing HGV numbers he said this did not outweigh the breach of planning regulations.

Planning Inspector, Martin Pike, will announce the outcome of the public inquiry in July.

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