PLANS to demolish a nightclub have been turned down for a fourth time - with council bosses saying a replacement needs to be built elsewhere before the bulldozers can move in.

Proposals to knock down Winkers nightclub in Chalfont St Peter to make way for four new houses were turned down by Chiltern District Council's planning committee on Thursday.

Although the club, which has been on the Denham Lane site since 1971, is in Green Belt land, councillors said they were generally in favour of redeveloping the land for housing - with one describing Winkers as "an eyesore".

But they said a failure to provide a different community facility elsewhere in the district meant the plans could not be given the go-ahead.

Jonathan Rush, member for the Central ward in the village, was one of two committee members to vote in favour of the proposals after saying Winkers was becoming unprofitable as a business.

He said: "If you remove an eyesore from the Green Belt, you improve the Green Belt.

"It's of limited value as a community facility, unless your definition of local community includes people from Hillingdon and Uxbridge.

"If 1,000 youngsters in Chalfont St Peter used Winkers it would be a popular and profitable place, which it clearly isn't."

John Wertheim added: "The fact 1,000 Facebook people say they like it doesn't mean to say it's a viable community facility."

But he said: "I don't consider this an inappropriate development but it's too large a development within the Green Belt."

Julie Burton said: "This is a community facility - whether it makes a million pounds or tuppence hapenny doesn't make any difference if it's a community facility."

And Nigel Shepherd added: "We don't live in a museum. If every square inch of the district is housing or residential it would be a very boring place."

The plans, for three four-bedroom houses and an affordable three-bedroom home, were turned down by seven votes to two.