CAMPAIGNERS against more flats in a neighbourhood have reacted with anger to another lost battle.

Permission to build 21 flats at the site of Jennikings Garden Centre, in Manor Road, Chigwell, has finally been granted after many previous attempts.

The new flats will join 69 others already granted permission on an adjacent site and are the latest in a string of developments along Manor Road.

Barry Fleetwood, 64, of Manor Road, said: “I expected it. They disregarded totally what their officers said they're so desperate to build affordable housing on the edge of the borough with other boroughs picking up the services.

“Not a single word was said by any councillor as to the effect on local residents. The council really want to look at how they've destroyed Grange Hill.”

More flats are planned for nearby Grange Crescent, and many residents are concerned property developers will now turn their attention to the vacant Bald Hind pub at the junction with Hainault Road.

Dennis Briggs, 57, of View Close, Chigwell, said: “I wrote to the local councillors when the Bald Hind closed asking if they were going to approve any more flats on Manor Road and the answer that came back was no. Now they're building flats and more flats.

“I just feel there's so many of them there. How long does it go on for? Every time someone dies or sells their house someone puts in an application for flats.”

Chigwell district councillor Brian Sandler, who sat on the planning committee, said the new flats at Jennikings were needed.

He said: “It's 80 per cent affordable housing, it's directly next to an underground station, it's right by a small parade of shops. It's a perfect position and takes away an eyesore because that site has already been built over. It's really more of a brownfield site.”