A DEVELOPER’S third attempt to bulldoze a Leigh building thought to have once been the home of Dame Vera Lynn has been rejected.

The plan would have seen 135 Marine Parade demolished and seven flats built in its place.

It is the third time Southend Council’s development control committee has rebuffed a bid by P and PR Property Developments to bulldoze the building to make way for flats.

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The latest proposal saw the development scaled back, with all six of the planned two-bed flats reclassified to three-person homes – previously two had been classified as four-person.

Echo: 135 Marine Parade135 Marine Parade (Image: .)

The width of the building was reduced by 300 centimetres and the frontage was pulled back from the road.

However, the application was once again rejected on the grounds it “excessive scale would have a significant detrimental impact on character and appearance of the site and the wider area”.

Echo: The latest proposals for the siteThe latest proposals for the site (Image: P and PR Property Developments)

 “It’s totally out of character with the area and especially when you think of the history behind that house with Dame Vera Lynn having lived there,” Conservative West Leigh councillor John Lamb said.

“If they did the building up it would be lovely, but no they want to pull it down and turn it into flats which nobody in the area wants to see.

“We already have big issues with parking and traffic in the area, and seven flats would massively exacerbate that.”

Echo: An aerial shot of how the flats would have lookedAn aerial shot of how the flats would have looked (Image: P and PR Property Developments)

He added: “I think residents would be much more open to the building being redeveloped as one big house, keeping its beautiful look and character.”

Objecting to the proposals Leigh Town Council wrote: “The development is also overbearing and is not respectful and subservient.

“Additionally, there is also some concern that the vehicular access onto Thames Drive is very close to a busy traffic junction.”

In 2020 applicants Peter Hill and Paul Miller of P and PR Property Developments won a government planning appeal to convert the existing building into flats – having been rejected by Southend Council the year prior.

However, the firm scrapped those plans and returned with new designs to demolish the building to make way for the flats scheme twice rejected in 2021 and now again this year.