Controversial plans to house some of the borough's most vulnerable young people together in Carshalton Beeches got the go-ahead last Wednesday night only to be recalled to a future meeting.

The news that Sutton Council's Conservative group has requisitioned the planning application for 82 Stanley Park Road will come as music to the ears of disgruntled residents who left the Carshalton and Clockhouse area committee fuming.

The proposal to place seven 16-21 year olds in care at the address, in a scheme run by Look Ahead Housing and Care, will now be reconsidered at a future meeting of the development control committee, but looks almost certain to go ahead.

During the heated summit, committee chairman Councillor Sheila Siggins threatened to evict the entire public gallery. Members and officers were repeatedly jeered and residents left vowing to reap their revenge on the Liberal Democrat ruling group in next May's elections.

The council even had two policemen stationed outside its committee rooms for security reasons, while the stage for the confrontation was set from the start with eight out of the 10 scheduled questions from the public on the application.

Labour leader Councillor Charlie Mansell joined most of the Liberal Democrats in backing the plan but the three ward representatives for Carshalton Beeches all dissented from the party line, with Councillor Gary Miles voting against, and Councillor Maggie Woodley and Councillor Roy Bentley abstaining.

All three had been urged not to go to the public meeting on December 10 by the council's legal department, which indicated attendance could prejudice their decisions on the planning application.

Though he supported the project in principle, Coun Miles disagreed with the way it had been handled, particularly the lack of consultation with residents. He said: "The people in the public gallery are key stakeholders in this project."

Coun Miles urged more neighbourhood involvement in the implementation of the scheme but for the vast majority of the public gallery only a flat rejection would do, with fear of crime emerging as the central issue.

Residents' spokesman Adrian Turner, of Northwood Road, said: "There is no proof of success. We have spoken to residents in two other areas with similar schemes where there were crime and fear of crime issues. We are being treated as social guinea pigs."

But officers and councillors, citing the support of borough crime prevention officer PC Gary Saunders, repeatedly stressed there was no connection between criminality and a life in care.

And according to Look Ahead's supported housing service manager Kevin Beirne: "We are talking about a very vulnerable group of people. These young people have rights and they have aspirations."

December 28, 2001 09:30