Councillors today came under fire for allowing controversial plans to go ahead which protesters claim will destroy an attractive Westcliff landmark.

Trevor Bell, of Holland Road, Westcliff, is furious that a house built in 1948 is to be demolished to make way for a block of flats.

The house, in the Crowstone conservation area of The Leas, is a well known landmark in the area and neighbours are devastated it is to be destroyed.

Protesters contacted the council and the This is Essex partner the Southend Echo when proposals for the scheme were announced in May, but Mr Bell, 55, claimed their objections had simply been ignored.

He said: "Southend Council has high-handedly decided what it will do and the councillors just don't care what we think.

"Countless people wrote in to the council and to the Echo, including myself and my wife Linda, and we all said we didn't want the new flats to be built there.

"I don't understand how they could pull down a beautiful building like that and replace it with some ugly flats.

"Why couldn't they just renovate the original building?

"I have seen the plans for the flats and they look terrible. The council have ridden roughshod over all our wishes."

Even Chalkwell pop singer Tina Cousins, who used to liv ein the house, joined forces with residents to fight the planning application.

In the end, their efforts made no difference.

The plans, put forward by developers Civicgreen, were approved after a site visit from councillors in May.

A spokesman for the council said: "Planning permission was granted for the flats after councillors voted the proposals through after they had carried out a site visit."

Liberal Democrat councillor for Leigh, Alan Crystall, voted for the development.

He said: "It is a very classy design and should be very popular once it is finished."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.