Thurrock Council’s plan to expand the civic offices was labelled ‘horrible’ and ‘excessive’ during a planning meeting that saw the controversial development rejected by councillors.

Members of Thurrock Council’s planning committee voted to vote down the £10million project, against the advice of officers on the council’s planning team.

The rejection was led by Labour’s Gerard Rice, who gained support from five of the nine members on the committee.

Mr Rice said: “That building looks like a big carbuncle. It looks horrible.

“To detract away from that you have the Grade 2 listed church opposite. It is hardly trying to bring the area into harmony. It will look totally out of place.”

He went on to call it an “excessive” development that “doesn’t complement anything”.

Councillor Gary Byrne, of the Thurrock Independents, backed Mr Rice’s comments saying that the proposed building looked like “the sort of Lego building one of my grandchildren would make.”

An agent speaking on behalf of the developer defended the plans claiming there has been “extensive consultation” about the scheme and promised it would “reinvigorate the south end of the High Street”.

When he was asked how it would reinvigorate the area, he explained that it is not accurate to label it an office building because over 50 per cent of it would be “open to community use”.

Councillor Martin Kerin spoke on behalf of residents in Grays and said if the scheme goes ahead it would “remove the last, legible vestiges of the historic character of the High Street” and loom over the residents of the nearby Pullman Court “leading to a complete lack of privacy”.

He added that it also threatens to “decimate” at least half of the independent businesses at the southern end of the High Street.

As the vote went against the advice of the planning team, officers will have to review the plans and bring them back to a future planning meeting. That meeting will come after council leaders discuss a motion to abandon the plans entirely, which the majority of councillors voted to do at the end of June.