A BURNHAM-ON-SEA care home's plans to expand by developing 11 new apartments have been rejected by Somerset Council.

Beaufort Park Ltd. submitted a planning application to build the apartments within its existing care home grounds in Rectory Road earlier this year. 

The care home, which is owned and operated by Agincare, said the proposed apartments were “designed for independent living for the elderly”.

The proposed new building would have been two storeys in height along its eastern boundary and a single storey on its southern boundary.

It would have had seven apartments on the ground floor and four on the first floor.

Each would have come with a double bedroom, living and dining room, kitchen and walk-in shower room. 

Read more: Nursing home submits plans to build two-storey extension for 13 more bedrooms

But Somerset Council refused to grant planning permission on the basis the development would “result in a detrimental impact” on existing residents.

The decision notice says the building's height and proximity to existing properties on Rectory Road would have caused a “loss of light, restriction of outlook and visual domination to the extent that residential amenity would be significantly harmed”.

The local authority also said the development would have involved the removal of existing buildings that could contain bats. 

Because an ecological survey was not submitted with the plans, it said there was “insufficient information to ascertain the impact of the development on the ecological interests of the locality” and protected species that may live there.

In March, Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge Town Council objected to the plans, saying the development was “out of character” and would have an “adverse effect on residential amenity of neighbouring properties”.

Somerset Council rejected the proposals on June 8.