Developers hoping to build a 69-bed care home for the elderly in Falmouth face a hurdle in the form of the town's neighbourhood plan.

Plans for the development at Bosvale were approved on appeal in 2016 and the applicant has now submitted a more detailed application.

Falmouth Town Council's planning committee recommended on Monday that the application be refused, citing a policy in the neighbourhood development plan that protects green space.

The neighbourhood plan carries more weight now than it did when the first application was submitted in 2015, as it was still being drafted.

There was also talk at Monday's meeting of approaching the Rotary Club, who owns the fields, with an offer to buy the land so that the council could refurbish its community centre and potentially stop the development going ahead.

Read more: Bosvale homes plan in Falmouth is "totally unsuitable for the area" says objector

Town clerk Mark Williams pointed out that the council had approached Rotary in the past with an offer that had been rejected.

The application for the new care home includes provisions for a new community centre.

Councillor Patricia Minson said: "I don't think these plans would be coming in if there was a solid plan for the community centre.

"I think Rotary would consider letting us take it on if we made that community centre fit for purpose which it isn't.

"We need to have this commitment to actually doing something with that centre, but it's not going to be cheap to do that.

"I would urge the council to actually put together a formal application and ask them to gift it to us.

"We're five years on now and things have changed."

The council will discuss making an application to buy the land at its next full meeting.

Several residents were present at the meeting including Stacey Guthrie, who lives next door to the site with her husband and ten-year-old daughter.

She said: "There will be no area at the back of my house and garden where we will not be overlooked.

"We will have no privacy whatsoever."

Policy FOS 1 in Falmouth's neighbourhood development plan states that development on "high value" green space will not be supported. The council agreed to begin drafting the plan in 2014, before the original care home application was submitted.

In July of this year it was submitted to Cornwall Council, which means that it carries more weight in planning decisions. It is now being assessed by an independent examiner.