A bid to convert a house into an autistic care home has been approved.

Colchester Council's planning committee last night backed plans for the home for young adults in Seaview Avenue, West Mersea.

Eighty-seven residents had signed a protest petition against the scheme, claiming fear of meeting an autistic person in an alleyway would make them insecure and affect their daily lives.

Their representatives at the meeting argued, as there were two existing care homes in the street, they should not be expected to put up with another.

But councillors passed the proposals, after hearing the five "mostly mild to medium category" autistic residents would be accompanied at all times when outside and pose no threat.

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Published Friday, February 4, 2005

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