PLANS to demolish a social club and use the site to build new homes have been rejected by Stockton Borough Council.

But planning officers have ruled that their elected councillors must debate the plan for the site of Stillington Social Club again because the reasons for rejection were not strong enough.

Villagers had raised concerns about the proposal arguing the impact of extra traffic, the number of new homes already approved for development, flooding and the “unsustainable nature of Stillington” as issues for the council to consider.

At a planning committee meeting at Stockton Central Library, Stillington parish councillor Judith Turner said that if all the housing developments for the west-of-Stockton village were to go-ahead the number of houses would increase from 305 to 574. She went on to argue the demand for new housing was not there.

She said: "I had a look on RightMove and there's 15 houses for sale, six in recent builds. Of those two are for sale for £130,000, down from £180,000. I've seen another five for sale boards and there's been houses for sale for two years. The demand for more housing isn't there."

Planning officers, who recommended the application to be approved, said in their report the development would “contribute towards the provision of affordable housing, education places, off site public open space and recreation, as well as traffic calming feature for the entrance into the village.” Furthermore the Environment Agency had withdrawn its concerns after seeing plans to reduce the risk of flooding.

However councillors on the committee raised their own concerns. Cllr Ken Lupton, Conservative, pointed out more housing in Stillington was not part of the council's Local Plan and there were serious road safety concerns which more traffic would exacerbate.

Councillors voted by six votes to four against the plan citing sustainability, road safety and environmental protection issues. However council officers said more discussion was needed on the reason for objection and the application will be debated again at a future meeting.