PLANS to build a new care home for the elderly have been thrown out despite full backing from health chiefs in the face of a bed blocking crisis at Wycombe Hospital.

The plan for a residential home in Lucas Road, High Wycombe, for 36 elderly people was rejected by Wycombe District Council this month. The council said the home was too big, un-neighbourly and failed to meet the standards for a new building in a sensitive urban conservation area.

Lloyd Scott Healthcare Ltd, the company behind the plan, had the backing of NHS chiefs who said the privately-funded scheme was needed to help take the pressure off acute facilities in the Wycombe area.

Simon Scott, managing director of Lloyd Scott Healthcare Ltd, said he is flabbergasted at the decision and added: "It's absolutely diabolical. There is a crisis, especially in South Bucks, at the moment because there is a short supply of care homes.

"Wycombe Hospital is failing because social services are not able to place patients like the elderly from hospital into care. It's just not happening because there are fewer and fewer homes.

"This scheme would add supply to the area which is desperately needed."

Last week the Free Press revealed that the hospital was at bursting point.

But 55 beds cannot be used for new patients because they are taken up by elderly patients who cannot be accommodated elsewhere.

Lloyd Scott Healthcare Ltd already runs Chilworth House in Rectory Avenue, High Wycombe, which houses almost 30 elderly patients. About 30 per cent come from NHS wards.

In a letter to the company in May, Steve Young, chief executive of the Chiltern NHS Primary Care Group, which is the administrative body for GPs in the Chiltern and South Bucks District, said the Rectory Road home had helped ease pressure on the health services in winter.

He added: "I can confirm that you have my full support in making this application...there is clearly a need for the resources that you are planning".

Mr Scott says his architects did everything they could to design an Edwardian-style building in keeping with the surrounding area.

A Wycombe District Council spokesman said there had been more than 50 letters of objection to the new plan from neighbours, the High Wycombe Society and the East of Amersham Hill Residents Association.

He added: "We are happy to be involved about the future of the property but this proposal is not an auspicious starting point."