MILE End residents have given short shrift to developers hoping to build 1,600 homes, two schools, a supermarket and a community centre on 250 acres of green fields in the area.

Mersea Homes and Countryside Properties have applied to Colchester Council for outline planning permission for a huge site between Nayland Road and Bergholt Road, in Mile End, Colchester.

This week the companies put on an exhibition to explain amended plans involving a site the size of about 130 football pitches.

Lawrence Revill, of David Lock Associates, which helped to draw up the plans, said: “We are trying to create a new development in the best way we can, one which has the best impact on the community and provides facilities it lacks.”

One controversial aspect of the proposal is the suggested way of minimising pressure on the congested Colchester North train station area – by getting thousands of new residents not to use their cars.

Mr Revill said: “We have designed it in such a way it would be much better for people who want to make short journeys into the town centre to walk, cycle or take the bus.

“We are trying to discourage people driving towards the town centre.”

Mark Leigh, of planning specialist Vectos Transport, stressed the transport strategy – drawn up by Essex County Council and Colchester Council – was still in draft form.

He added: “It relies on people moving from their cars to something else, such as buses, taxis, cycling or walking.”

Mr Leigh said he did have an alternative plan in case there was no shift away from driving into town – a new road running through the development.

Residents are now being invited to pass their views on the proposals on to Colchester Council – though if the views of those at Wednesday’s exhibition are a guide, the council can expect a welter of objections.

The council must decide the application in the next 16 weeks. If it gives the go-ahead, work could start early in 2104.

Between 100 and 150 homes a year would be built, starting at the north of the site and working south, over a total of 15 years.

l To view the plans, go to colchesternorth.co.uk and the council website, colchester.

gov.uk A display of the proposals can also be seen in St Michael’s Church, in Mile End Road, Colchester, for the next month.