AN application has been submitted to Thurrock Council to build a retirement home with up to 41 bedrooms on the site of a long-established computer sales and support business.

The planned home for the over 55s would include a cafe, shop and pharmacy, dentist and underground car park.

The site, The Red House on Brentwood Road close to the Orsett Cock roundabout, is currently home to Red House Computers, run by Bob Rouse and his wife Janice since 1990.

The application, seeking outline permission for the development which is in the green belt, asks that it be approved as it will help Thurrock meet its new housing target, which it is currently failing by a significant margin, and also meet the requirements of the council's housing strategy that it will undertake 'collaborative working with the private sector' to meet the requirement for 3,400 new homes specifically to meet the needs of an aging population.

And, say the applicants, the facilities that the development will provide will be a boost for the local community.

Their submission says the development will help meet a shortage of dentists in the borough and the provision of a village shop and cafe for local residents and people who live in the apartments will be a major benefit as "there are no such facilities within two miles of the site despite several thousand residents living near by".

The site is close to the Bonners estate and several streets of houses off the A1013 (Stanford Road).

And it is not anticipated the home will have any adverse effect on traffic. The application states: "The site is previously developed with commercial and residential development in situ. The enhancement and enlargement of the activity on site shall have little, if any, impact on the local road network.

"The addition of local services in the area shall have a positive effect on the social cohesion and sense of place for the people living nearby who presently have to travel some 2.5 miles for local convenience shopping."

Full details of the planning application and the opportunity to comment on it can be found here.

Recently Thurrock planning councillors ignored their officers' recommendation to approve a large retirement and healthcare facility at Langdon Hills, just a few miles away. See story.

As the decision was to approve in the green belt and against officer recommendations, that still has to come back to the planning committee to be rubber-stamped under council planning rules.