A CLUB owner launched a stinging attack on the people who have objected to her plan to convert it into retirement homes.

Mrs Lucas said Glazebrook residents have stolen from her site and ran a campaign against her.

She wanted to convert her Bank Street country club into 30 retirement homes - but permission was refused at last Wednesday's meeting of the borough council's development control committee.

"Bank Street people will object to anything which is done to the country club," Mrs Lucas told the meeting before the committee voted.

"There has been a vigilante campaign by Bank Street to oppose anything that is done.

"No matter what we propose, they would object to it.

"They have created an enormous problem not just to me, but to people before me.

"I have had the club since the early 1980s.

"In 1998, 56 gypsy vehicles arrived, more than 150 of them were on my site, they desecrated my building.

"I was unable to run my business and I was driven out of my own home and I have been trying to resurrect that building ever since.

"Whenever I try to do repair work, that building is destroyed. There are people in Bank Street who have stolen building materials from me.

"I have had to take them to court."

The proposal was voted down because the road was too narrow, the site was not sustainable, there was no housing need for retirement homes and the planning application contained errors.

Asked for her reaction after the meeting, Mrs Lucas said: "We go to appeal."