A CONTROVERSIAL plan that will see 15 houses and eight flats built in a village has been given the go ahead.

Members of Bexley council's planning sub committee were heckled - with one man calling the council "weak" - as the application was approved.

Plans for the former St Mary's Old People's Home site in Bexley Village had been a matter of much debate with objectors citing flood, traffic and conservation concerns against its being built.

The members of the planning sub-committee were themselves torn down the middle with six votes for and against.

However, Chairman Cllr June Slaughter gave her casting vote to allow construction.

Other developments also approved at the meeting were changes to Upton and Barnes Cray primary schools.

While an application to build three blocks of flats in Main Road, Sidcup was refused, as was permission for a mobile phone mast in Belvedere and an extension to a dentist's surgery in Blackfen.

The committee also decided planning permission for the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry to remain on the premises of the North Kent Indoor Bowls Club, Belvedere, would not be renewed.

For the full story, see next week's Bexley Extra.