Plans to replace a dilapidated Victorian building once used as a billiards room have been refused by planners.

Applicant John Clemence sought permission to knock down the property - a single-storey outbuilding used as accommodation alongside a property in Quilter Road, Felixstowe - and build a replacement.

However, East Suffolk Council’s planning committee south has refused the application because it would be an overdevelopment of the site and the two-storey new-build was of an "unsympathetic design and scale" compared with the original property.

The committee was told that the old billiards room was beyond repair and dilapidated and previous plans to remove it had been approved in 2018.

Labour councillor Peter Byatt said: “Why have we got conservation areas if we do not actually stick to the rules?

“The new design is nothing like the Victorian building next door [29 Quilter Road]. It completely disregards the design of the building in situ."