Council backs plans for £1.6m dinosaur park in South Woodham Ferrers

A model of a velociraptor, as pictured in the BBC's Truth About Killer Dinosaurs programme from 2005, would feature in the new displays

Plans for a £1.6m dinosaur park have been approved, despite concerns over traffic.

The attraction at Marsh Farm in South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, is set to feature replicas of pre-historic creatures, including a stegosaurus and velociraptor.

South Woodham Ferrers Town Council objected to the plans over fears traffic to the town would increase.

But Chelmsford City Council backed the scheme.

Marsh Farm owner James Sinclair, who took over the 50-acre (20 hectare) site in 2013, said the new attraction would provide an educational focus for the park.

Marsh Farm in Essex was taken over in 2013

It is due to feature 15 dinosaur replicas, a theatre hall, fossil digs and bone puzzles, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

South Woodham Ferrers Town Council had said: "This application for change of use is designed by the applicant's own figures to attract a further 40,000 vehicles a year and thereby increase disruption to the local residents.

"Councillors already get complaints regarding the difficulty of driving out of the roads into Inchbonnie Road between Marsh Farm Road and Ferrers Road."

It also raised concerns about an increase in noise.

The farm first opened to the public in 1984

But the plans were approved at a Chelmsford City Council Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday by 10 votes to one, with two abstentions.

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