Plans to demolish a former residential home and replace it with 28 luxury flats have been refused permission, but only on the chairman’s casting vote.

Cornwall Council’s central sub-area planning committee considered the application for the former Sheldon House Nursing Home in Falmouth.

Investin Sheldon Falmouth Developments had applied to pull down the former nursing home in Sea View Road and build 28 two-bedroom apartments. It was the fifth version of plans for redevelopment of the site which had previously included plans for 34 apartments being refused.

Council planning officers had recommended that the application be approved, but councillors were divided on the proposals. One of the main concerns was that there was no provision of any affordable housing on the site or for a financial contribution to provide affordable homes off-site.

There were also concerns about the scale and mass of the development with nearby residents stating that they felt they would be overlooked, overshadowed and experience loss of privacy if the development went ahead.

Local Cornwall councillor Laurie Magowan, who had asked for the application to be decided by the committee, said he was concerned that it was “a very large scale development in the conservation area in Falmouth”. He said that while the plans had been reduced from earlier proposals there was still concern about it being an over development of the site.

Cllr Magowan said that he did not have any issue with the proposed design but said that it was the scale of the development which was causing concern.

The committee heard that affordable homes would not be provided as a viability study had concluded that it would not be viable to do so.

Committee member Dick Cole said he could not understand how this could be when the previous proposals for 34 apartments had included a requirement for financial contribution towards affordable housing.

He said: “This is a development of 28 units in a prominent location and we are being told that viability says that affordable housing cannot be provided. The previous application was 34 units with an off site contribution of more than £1.3million. So, if you build 34 you get £1.3m but if you build 28 you get nothing?”

Sally Anne Weedon proposed that the plans should be refused permission due to the design, overlooking and unreasonable loss of privacy. It was also agreed to take into account the conservation area officer’s concerns about the impact on the conservation area.

Mike Thomas said he thought the design was “superb” and said that in a city location it would be “perfect”. However he said that it was inappropriate for the Falmouth site and added that plans to use white render were “appalling”.

John Fitter said that he would be “very reluctant” to support refusal of the plans. He said: “The design is exciting, it is worthy of any town be it Falmouth of the city of London. We can’t pretend that we can match everything in Falmouth with the iconic architecture that is there at the moment. We have to do something that reflects the future.”

When the proposal to refuse permission was put to the vote the committee voted five in favour and five against. On committee chairman Alan Jewell’s casting vote permission was refused.