PLANS to build a new community of 119 homes in Green Belt land are due to be given their final test next week.

Developer Sue Silver has been seeking the go-ahead for the project, at White Lodge, off Sewardstone Road, Waltham Abbey, for more than three years.

She won outline permission for the scheme in 2007, and is now seeking full permission from Epping Forest District Council at their planning meeting next Wednesday (June 17).

If constructed, the 119 home development will include 95 affordable dwellings, a community building and a shop.

The scheme has faced strong objections from Waltham Forest Council who are upset at construction in the Green Belt separating Chingford from Waltham Abbey.

Lee Valley Regional Park Authority has objected to the scheme on similar grounds, but district councillors have previously spoken in favour of the plans, citing the high level of affordable housing and the environmentally friendly design of the buildings as sufficient reason to overrule Green Belt concerns.

Ms Silver, who once suffered homelessness herself nearly 20 years ago, has said the plans mark a lifetime’s ambition to provide high-quality social housing.