Fears over road safety close to a Gorleston school were enough for councillors to refuse plans for more than 70 new homes - at a third time of asking.

An application from Badger Building for a development off East Anglian Way, close to the Catholic school, were twice deferred - first in September 2017 and again in February this year.

However, its third time in front of Great Yarmouth Borough Council's planning committee saw members vote against officer recommendation and refuse it.

It was the latest development in a long-running saga, which saw the developers originally change the access point, before making a U-turn and asking for its first proposals to be considered.

The plans had originally included extending East Anglian Way for access, before the Lowestoft-based home builders revised its plans, suggesting instead access should be through a new road across Gorleston Recreation Ground.

After these proposals received strong objection though, the plans were reverted back to their original form.

However, the committee's view was that the developers should instead have looked for a 'Plan C', with councillors suggesting Beccles Road could also be used as an access point.

Fears were raised that the proposed extension would not make the site accessible to emergency vehicles, despite no objections from either Norfolk County Council's highways department or emergency services themselves during consultation.

Rather than deferring the application for a third time though, members voted to refuse planning permission, following a proposal from Labour councillor Trevor Wainwright.

Mr Wainwright said: 'I think this should be put to bed - it is unfair to the residents of East Anglian Way for this to keep coming back to committee.'

Carl Annison, Graham Plant and Tony Wright were also among the councillors who raised traffic concerns.

Edward Gilder, land and planning manager for Badger, said: 'After 13 months of trying to get this through committee, the part I find most frustrating is members do not grasp that a car park we were offering to the school would remove the traffic problem.'

Mr Gilder confirmed an appeal would be lodged.