COLCHESTER United and the makers of Tiptree Jam have gone head to head with blueprints to build major housing developments in Tiptree.

U’s chairman Robbie Cowling wants to build at least 140 homes on fields off Grange Road, on the western edge of the large village, where more than 11,000 people live.

Wilkin & Sons has also set out plans to place up to 180 homes on part of its current factory site, off Factory Hill and fields adjacent to existing homes in Chapel Road.

The U’s want the houses to help fund a £3million training facility on the same site, while the makers of Tiptree Jam want construction to help fund a planned £15million factory it wants to build south of the site.

However, an examination of Colchester Council’s local development framework yesterday heard only 72 more houses needed to be built in Tiptree to meet Government targets.

The council recommends those homes are built off Grange Road.

But John Lawson, representing the U’s and watched by Mr Cowling, told the hearing a host of facilities for Tiptree residents might not see the light of day if only 72 homes are built.

He said: “In short, we’re looking for a minimum of 140 dwellings with some room for growth to help deliver the additional infrastructure which is part and parcel of the whole scheme.”

Robert Pomery, from Andrew Martin Associates and representing Wilkin & Sons, said health and safety and hygiene reasons meant the firm needed to move out of its 125-year-old home.

He said: “It’s a Victorian factory trying to operate in the clinical food standards of today.

“In the short to medium-term, it needs to be moving towards building a new factory.

“The alternative to that is Wilkin & Sons simply selling up and moving on.”

Tiptree Parish Council chairman John Elliott said villagers opposed both proposed developments.

He said hundreds of homes had been built in recent years, while few benefits from developers in the form of section 106 agreements had come to the village.

Under section 106 agreements, developers have to provide funding for improvements in an area.

He said: “The population of Tiptree is more than 11,000 now. It has gone up enormously, and that’s a problem.

“The transport here is totally inadequate.

“There’s so much that’s needed in Tiptree now that 106 agreements won’t pay for them.

“We need the various authorities to put the money up.”

He added: “It’s a town, but it’s only a town as far as houses are concerned.”

Joe Caffery, who lives near the U’s land, said the club had previously suggested up to 185 homes could be built on land north and south of Grange Road. An independent inspector will rule on where homes should be built in Tiptree later this year.