Controversial golf course revamp opposers pack courtroom » Environment » 24dash.com

Campaigners and local residents have packed a courtroom in a bid to block controversial plans for a £1m golf course revamp in Essex.

The Friends of Basildon Golf Course fear the controversial scheme involves "disguised waste dumping" which will ruin a beauty spot and destroy the homes of badgers, glow worms, great-crested newts and other flora and fauna.

More than 60 residents were at the Royal Courts of Justice in London to hear their legal team argue that Basildon District Council had unlawfully given the scheme approval.

Their counsel Jeremy Pike said the development involved the importation to the site of thousands of tonnes of waste material to "remodel" the course at Clayhill Lane, Basildon.

He said: "There are a number of similar controversial schemes taking place elsewhere."

He told Mr Justice Wyn Williams that the large-scale depositing of construction and demolition waste as part of golf course landscaping had become a matter of concern to MPs.

Mr Pike referred to a letter written by Joan Ruddock, Parliamentary under secretary for climate change, biodiversity and waste, in which she said of such schemes generally: "I believe there may be some substance in the claims made by local residents that developers are actively seeking to use landscaping as a cover for significant waste disposal operations and that local authority planners are being misled over the real purpose of the proposals."

Counsel said Ms Ruddock had written to Ian Wright, Parliamentary under secretary of state for communities and local government, in July this year seeking his comments on whether such developments "are legitimate uses of land or require further assessment as waste disposal matters".

Mr Pike also told the judge that Essex County Council had expressed "disappointment" that Basildon Council had failed to consult it over the project.

Roy Leavitt, head of the county's environmental planning department, had written to the district council saying he would be "grateful" if the county council was consulted on any further similar applications as it was the waste planning authority for the area.