ANGRY residents have criticised a developer, which wants to build flats in Billericay, for not addressing their concerns.

M&D Building Services proposes demolishing Heywood Lodge care home, in Western Road, and building a block of 12 flats.

A meeting of Basildon Council’s planning committee this week rejected an amended application more than a year after the first set of proposals were turned down.

But residents turned out in force at the meeting to criticise the application, claiming it was no different from the first.

All seven committee members voted against the proposal after hearing residents’ concerns about the potential of road accidents and the “over-bearing” size of the three-storey development in the town’s conservation area.

The first application was rejected in January 2008, and an appeal against the decision was refused in August.

David Dadds, Tory councillor for Billericay East, told the committee the developer must have been wearing “beer goggles” if they felt they had addressed previous objections.

John O’Hara, of West Park Drive, said the area already had a chequered history of road accidents, and the development would exacerbate the problem.

He said: “I think the potential for something quite nasty happening here is really quite serious.”

A statement from Des Harte, who lives opposite the site, and who has collected a 300-signature petition against the plans, said he felt the flats would overshadow the area.

Matthew Driscoll, of chartered surveyors JTS Partnerships, said the new proposal was an “attractive development” which had addressed previous concerns over parking, and which had raised no objections with Essex County Council’s highways department.

Mark Hanham, the owner of M&D, said he would appeal against the decision to the Government’s Planning Inspectorate.

He said: “I thought we had answered all of the previous concerns they had raised, and it is very frustrating it did not get through.”