Plans to demolish a care home to create 83 new homes have been refused for a third time by Rochford District Council.

The proposed demolition of the Timber Grove care home in London Road, Rayleigh was denied by the council’s development committee.

Toby Mountain, councillor for Sweyne Park and Grange put forward five grounds for refusal on the application.

He felt that the council still had as many questions about the application as before.

Mr Mountain said: “It is a good result, I would describe Timber Grove as the itch that never goes away.

“As it was the third time, we would expect their plans to now answer the questions people were asking but no, they keep coming for more.”

James Newport, fellow councillor for Sweyne Park and Grange added the result came after the planning officers were unable to answer the council’s questions due to “poor IT”.

He said: “This poor officer had something like 50 slides to show us about the proposal but it would not work, and we had to waste a huge amount of time asking lots of questions about the plan.”

The plan would have seen the old building and its surrounding buildings replaced with a range of two to five bedroom houses, one and two bedroom flats and three supported living units.

The London Road area had a planned quota for 550 homes to be built. Timber Grove added to already approved developments would have meant that London Road was 80 spots above its quota.

Mr Newport was concerned about the development going ahead without additional infrastructure such as a crossing in London Road

He said: “Where we recognise we need housing, we need them in the right place and with the right infrastructure, so I guess it was the right decision.

“I’m very concerned that on a daily basis, I see parents with young children trying to cross the London Road with no crossing in place.

“I do not want it to take a fatality for us to get a crossing.”