AN independent report on plans for a £25million Heritage centre has been submitted to Colchester Council.

The authority is considering the findings of consultant firm Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners, which was appointed to advise on the proposed Horkesley Park Heritage Centre.

The report will help officials decide how to advise councillors, who will be voting on the Bunting family’s planned tourist attraction, which is designed to occupy 117 acres of land in Great Horkesley.

Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners was commissioned by the council to investigate whether the centre would prove to be a tourist attraction of national importance, as the Buntings claim.

The council has not made the report public yet.

Applicant Stephen Bunting said: “The report has been sent to the council planning department, who are no doubt considering it.

“It is all part of the due process, which has to be followed.”

Will Pavry, chairman of the Stour Valley Action Group, which is fighting the plans, said: “We assume and hope the council officers will advise members to follow planning law and turn down the application.

“We are keeping a close watch and getting ready for when it comes before the committee.”

The Buntings say the heritage centre would celebrate the history and landscape of Constable Country, with an art gallery and other displays housed in new buildings on the site of old greenhouses.

Opponents claim the scheme would spoil views and is simply a way of getting permission to turn agricultural land into a garden centre, as a plant nursery also forms part of the scheme.