Controversial plans for a care home for abused youngsters in Shropshire have been turned down after hundreds of people objected to the proposal.

Simon Alton, spokesman from Shropshire Council, said the application for the home at All Stretton, near Church Stretton, had been refused because it did not fit in with policy for the local plan.

Opposition to the scheme to convert Willowfields Guest House included objections from All Stretton, Smethcott and Woolstaston Parish Council and Leebotwood and Longnor Parish Council. A petition against the plans was also signed by 350 residents.

The application was made on behalf of Amberleigh Care.

Pat Pritz, director of care at Amberleigh Care, said today: “We are looking into the details as to why the planning application was declined.”

Christine Smith, also a director at Amberleigh Care, had previously said the home would be for people who had “suffered abuse and had started to learn abusive behaviour”.

She said the home would provide a therapeutic environment to “unlearn” that behaviour and confirmed it would not be for children who had not suffered abuse themselves.

John Woolmer, a Leebotwood resident who had been asked by neighbours to act as a spokesman, said: “I genuinely think this will come as a relief to a great many local people, for various reasons, but primarily because we are a small, isolated little settlement that doesn’t have sufficient pursuits to keep youngsters interested locally, let alone if more were brought in.

“I think there will be great relief all round that a contentious application has been consigned to reality and turned down.”

Objections on Shropshire Council’s planning portal also included fears that the access road would not cope with increased traffic flow and that the plans would have a negative impact on tourism for the area.