CONTROVERSIAL plans for new homes in Sheerness Dockyard have been rejected by Swale Council for a second time.

George Demetriou's application to convert a Georgian building into apartments, build flats and commercial units and create a new access through the listed dockyard wall was thrown out at July's planning meeting.

But it was back on the agenda last week after Mr Demetriou raised concerns about information presented to the committee, particularly an assurance from Tory county councillor Ken Pugh that English Heritage was objecting to the proposal, when in fact it had neither objected nor supported the plans.

At Thursday's meeting, Mr Demetriou complained Mr Pugh did not have "the correct information" when he told the committee English Heritage had given him the authority to say it would not support the application.

Mr Demetriou also claimed heritage groups had been "attempting to acquire the site" from him with the intention of building bigger developments and revealed he had spent £1.3 million trying to get planning permission, on top of what he paid for the site.

Philip Villiers, the managing director of Indigo Planning, spoke in support of the application, emphasising the fact Swale's planning officers had recommended approval.

In contrast, Sheppey resident David Hughes gave a passionate speech, describing the application as "cultural vandalism".

He said a public meeting had attracted an "impressive gathering" of islanders who objected to the plans for archaeological, historical and aesthetic reasons.

Mr Hughes described the council's and English Heritage's views as "one-sided" and "ignorant" and compared "gouging an entrance" into the dockyard's protected wall with destroying parts of Canterbury Cathedral.

Members voted almost unanimously to refuse the application.