DECISIONS over large planning applications which could have a major impact on the lives of residents could be taken over by the Government.

Castle Point Council has revealed the true extent of the consequences if a Local Plan is not signed off.

And it is feared the same could happen in Basildon.

Castle Point Council is behind schedule on a plan to identify potential sites for 4,000 homes.

A cabinet report, ahead of a meeting on Wednesday, revealed if the council does not finalise a plan by November, the Government will intervene.

If intervention goes ahead, the responsibility of putting a plan together will be taken away from Castle Point, and will be completed by the Housing Secretary of state, using feedback from neighbouring boroughs.

Future decision making could also be taken away from the council and passed to a neighbouring authority.

It could mean decisions being taken out of the hands of the south Essex council and people with no local knowledge, far removed from residents, will decided on what gets built and what does not.

If the Government makes the Local Plan, then any planning application which relates to the local plan will not be decided by Castle Point Council’s development control committee, but could be decided on by the Planning Inspectorate directly.

The document read: “In terms of decision-taking, the Government will wish to make certain after intervention that the statutory development plan and policies for the borough will be implemented and will not allow the local plan once agreed to be frustrated by the development control process.

“Consequently as the borough council had no role in the preparation of the plan, indications are that the secretary of state will exercise powers available to him to direct that any strategic planning applications submitted will be referred to the planning inspectorate directly rather than the borough council, to ensure that the plan and its policies are correctly implemented.

“The borough council through the development control committee will not be involved in implementation of the statutory development plan and the council’s ability to take decisions locally on strategic planning applications will be lost.” The strategic applications are the big ones.