Councillors have knocked back plans to turn a "landmark" bus garage into flats.

The planning committee at Watford Borough Council discussed a proposal to turn the former Arriva bus depot in St Albans Road, Garston, into 165 homes on Monday night.

Fairview New Homes had put forward plans to create a part-four, part-five storey building, but after some debate, councillors unanimously blocked the plans.

During the meeting, it became clear that members were not keen on losing a locally listed bus garage building.

Cllr Mark Watkin described it as a "landmark" building for Watford while Cllr Iain Sharpe questioned whether the quality of the scheme on offer outweighed the loss of the locally listed building - and he decided it did not.

Some councillors were critical of the amount of affordable housing proposed - in total 12 of the 165 flats were set aside as affordable, although this was considered acceptable by Watford Borough Council's planning department because the homes would have been for social rent.

In the meeting, Cllr Stephen Johnson said Fairview should be "embarrassed" by the amount of affordable house offered.

Mark Foster spoke against the application for five minutes - his property in Codicote Drive backs onto the development said, and he said he would have left his family home of 30 years if the plans were approved.

He was concerned about a number of issues including privacy and an increased amount of traffic.

Reacting after the scheme was refused, Mr Foster said: "I'm pleased with the council's decision this evening and I'm sure residents in Garston will be pleased too."

Ward councillor Jenny Pattinson also spoke against the scheme said she had issues with the size and scale of the development during her speech.

Director of Fairview New Homes, Mark Jackson, argued that the proposed scheme was on a brownfield site and said there was "significant scope for a high density scheme".

The scheme was officially refused due to the loss of a locally listed buiidng, the nature of design, and that the encroachment over the established building line was considered "unacceptable".