Separate plans for two new apartment complexes with rentable shop space for Dartford town centre and Stone have been shot down by the council.

The first development proposed a three-storey building containing 10 new apartments and a ground-floor space for retail purposes in Westgate Street, in the middle of the town centre.

Council officers blocked the plans on the grounds that its "poor design quality" would be visually detrimental for the town centre and would lead to an "unacceptable" loss of privacy for neighbouring residents.

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The other sought to demolish the Kwik Fit Euro centre and construct a four-storey block, providing 12 new apartments and similar space for business use on the ground floor, in London Road, Stone.

Medlake Homes' plan for Westgate Street was met with fierce backlash from nearby residents citing a number of concerns.

One neighbour in Junction Road claimed the new building would only add to ongoing parking issues and increase congestion in their neighbourhood.

They wrote: "The area is already suffering with reduced parking and heavy traffic, existing infrastructure for the are simply can not cope with the additional vehicles that 10 additional residential properties with cause.

"We have recently lost a lost a local car park, along with the clubs in the road means we often have difficulty parking within the road, even though we pay for a permit."

Other concerned residents noted a loss of privacy the development may have created with regards to its size.

One neighbour wrote: "The new build will be extremely overpowering and take away any privacy we have left on and in our house.

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"Most of the houses in our road are two storey, with the exception of a few loft conversions the new build is a proposed three-storey plus the roof pitch which would be okay if it was

further away from our property but it is almost in our garden extremely close, allowing no privacy at all."

Pierlane Limited's plan for the Stone development sparked a number of initial objections from Kent County Council's highways and transport department, citing a lack of proposed parking facilities and bike storage.

A KCC officer reported: "The current proposals suggest that 15 parking spaces would be adequate for shared use of 12 apartments and 240m² B1 business space.

"However, I dispute the fact that this number would completely satisfy parking demand for both the residential and commercial units.

"With no car parks nearby, I disagree that parking should be a shared resource for a relatively small scheme like this."

She also noted the parking facilities proposed did not meet the standards required for recommendation.

Dartford Council has been contacted for further comment on their refusal.