Controversial plans for dozens of houses have been granted in the face of flooding concerns.

Residents in the village of Blackmore, which lies just to the north of Brentwood, had argued that the risk of significant flooding is likely to increase with the development of 37 homes on land to the south of Red Rose Lane.

Brentwood Council narrowly passed the proposals at a planning committee meeting on October 8 after arguments were made that no clear reasons have been made for refusal.

That was despite the number of homes applied for being almost 25 per cent higher than the number allocated in the local plan.

MORE NEWS: 'New gates have made it look like multi-storey car park is closed'

Council chairman Phil Mynott said density and numbers of homes could not be seen as excessive in the application.

He said: “It’s abiding by the rules. It’s getting just to the point where it could be perceived as going over lines, but it’s not going over those lines.

“It’s going as far as it can go without going over those lines.”

He added that while there is a flooding problem in the village, experts have said mitigation will accommodate extra development.

He said: “Look at the situation of the drainage. Clearly, there is a big flooding problem.

“We’ve seen pictures and you can understand where there is a huge concern.

“People are being directly affected by this.  This is an application which is not putting new development on the most high-risk part of this particular site.

“It’s putting attenuation basins on the part of the site that it does propose to develop.

“And when the rule is run over them and the relevant bodies look at what’s being proposed, they say that that provision is acceptable.

“Now we all know what can be worked out in advance by an expert, and what actually happens in reality can be different.

“But the situation that we’re in is the expert advice is saying this is currently fine.”