A planning application to build 59 one and two-bedroom care units in Exmouth has been rejected.

The proposal had been seeking to build a three and four-storey building with associated communal lounges, a restaurant, a wellness room, guest suite as well as manager’s and carer’s accommodation.

If it had been given the go-ahead, the development would have been built on the site of a former church on land to the south of Redgate, in Salterton Road.

Exmouth Town Council previously objected to the application.

East Devon District Council rejected the plan as the East Devon Local Plan earmarks the site for employment land.

The officers’ report said: “While the application is considered to be acceptable in terms of its design, access, ecology, impact on trees and residential amenity, the loss of employment land is a matter that weighs heavily in the balance and causes harm to an extent that the application is recommended for refusal.”