CONTROVERSIAL plans for a care home in Reedley have again been thrown out by councillors, after angry residents packed a town hall meeting.

The home for young women with Princess Diana-type eating disorders had been recommended for approval by Pendle Council officers.

But councillors found the advice too hard to swallow and backed local householders, who had campaigned against the Burnley Health Trust proposal. Now the plan, along with an earlier similar application from the trust, is likely to go to an appeal inquiry.

The council now faces the prospect of having to pay several thousand pounds in extra costs, if the Department of the Environment inspector finds councillors acted unreasonably in ignoring the advice of their expert officers.

Last night members of the council's Brierfield, Reedley area committee rejected the plan, on the grounds that it contravened policy guidelines on care homes in relation to their proximity to adjacent housing.

The Trust aims to use the large semi-detached property for the treatment of up to seven patients suffering from anorexia and bulimia - conditions now treated in hospital psychiatric homes.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.