Officers in favour of plans for a "dominant" and "degrading" block of flats were overwhelmingly overruled by councillors.

Last Wednesday (August 8) proposals to convert a family home on Kendal Avenue, Epping were brought back in front of the planning sub-committee east.

Having previously been thrown out by councillors concerned by its height and bulky character, the developers had won officers' approval the second time around with a redesign.

The former family home would be replaced with a block of five instead of six flats which would stand 1.8m lower than previously planned.

The redrawing did not win over residents however, many of whom packed the council chamber in opposition to the plans.

Speaking on behalf of the 20 people who wrote letters of objection, one woman said: "I live near by and speak as a representative of a large residential group.

"We object to this block of new build flats because its density is an overdevelopment and its presence would be over-dominant.

"It does not respect the existing openness and spacing on this impressive avenue.

"It would overlook and overshadow neighbouring properties and would degrade the street scene.

"The need for homes is already being well serviced by the local draft plan so five flats here will not benefit the local community other than to enrich the developer.

"It would be a travesty to demolish an historic family home for new build flats."

She was joined in her opposition by town mayor and Councillor Nigel Avey, who said the proposals were part of a worrying trend in the area of developers converting family homes into apartment buildings.

The only person who spoke in favour of the build was Martin Patty, an agent of the developers Mr and Mrs Virk.

He said: "The new proposal is a large improvement on the previous design and addresses all the issues raised by reducing the number of flats from six to five, reducing the height of the building by 1.8m, providing the design is more sympathetic to the location on Kendall Avenue using a mixture of materials similar to the existing house that it is replacing and has design features of other properties in Kendall Avenue to make it an in-keeping design."

Neither Mr Patty nor the officers' blessings were enough to sway councillors however, who voted 14 to 0 against the plans.