Business owning brothers have made a second attempt to build houses where their fence company stands before they retire.

In October Epping Forest District Council threw out an application made by John and James Wilkinson, owners and operators of J & W Fencing Ltd.

The brothers have run the fencing business since 1975, moving to their current Pecks Hill, Nazeing base in the late 1980s.

According to chartered town planner Jane Orsborn - who helped them write an application to build 33 homes earlier this year - competition with national DIY chains made the brothers' businesses unviable, leading them to the property industry.

Their plans of retirement were scuppered on October 17 however, when the council found the Wilkinson's proposals for 18 four bed detached, two three bed semi-detached, five here bed terraced and eight two bed terraced homes would harm the Green Belt and place too much of a burden on nearby schools.

Now the brothers have made another attempt to have the development built, this time with 25 instead of 33 houses.

Addressing the Green Belt issue, Ms Orsborn writes in the plan: "The most significant very special circumstance in this case is the fact that the totality of the site now proposed for development is identified in the Pre-Submission Plan as suitable for residential re-development for approximately 29 houses.

"It is one of just four sites identified to provide housing in Nazeing to meet local needs through to 2033.

"It is also the only one of those sites that is previously developed land, the other three being exclusively green field sites located on the more sensitive southern edge of the village adjacent to open countryside."

If approved, 40 per cent of the houses - 10 - will be affordable.

This means they would be rented at 80 per cent of market rates or, if sold, the mortgage payments on the property would be more than council housing rent but below market levels.

As requested by Essex County Council, the developers would have to pay £17,422 per place for early years childcare and £15,281 per place for local primary school provision, based on how many children are likely to move into the properties.