CONTROVERSIAL plans to turn a house into a home for troubled adolescents have been recommended for refusal.

Planning officers at Castle Point council agreed with hundreds of residents who objected to an application to convert 459 Rayleigh Road, Thundersley, into a home for six or seven children.

Residents fear a children’s home would lead to antisocial behaviour, noise and damage to their homes.

In total, 137 homeowners wrote objection letters to the council, and 156 people have signed a petition against the proposed care home.

The application will be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting of the council’s development and control committee.

In a report to the committee, officers have recommended councillors throw out the plans.

One 62-year-old resident who lives close to where the home would be in Rayleigh Road, said: “People have a right to live in peace.

“This is just the latest in a string of developments on the Rayleigh Road which are ruining our peace. Let’s hope the councillors see sense and turn it down.”

Potton Homes, which runs a similar children’s home in Thorney Bay Road, Canvey, has offered to buy the property if it has planning permission for a children’s home.

Residents’ fears were fuelled by a letter sent to homes in Rayleigh Road, Thorndale and Deerhurst, claiming young people at a home in Thorney Bay Road are making residents’ lives hell.

The planing officers’ report confirmed police were called to the Thorney Bay Road home 50 times in seven months to deal with reports of missing persons, criminal damage, theft, and disturbances.

Castle Point MP Rebecca Harris is also strongly opposed to the plan. In a letter to the council she said: “This property is located in an exclusively residential area, near a very busy main road and is entirely unsuitable for the proposed use.

“Experience of a similar property on Canvey Island has shown such homes to be magnets for antisocial behaviour, disrupting the lives of other local residents in the area, and regularly tying up police resources in dealing with problems caused.

“I therefore urge the council to reject this ill-considered application.”

Potton Homes declined to comment when contacted by the Echo.

Tomrrow’s meeting is at 7.30pm at the council’s Kiln Road offices