Residents are celebrating victory in a battle to stop plans for a new care home in the heart of their neighbourhood.

Developer Central & Cecil Housing Trust (CCHT) has withdrawn its application to demolish Church Walk House, in Church Walk, Childs Hill, and build a new four-storey home.

It follows opposition from residents who felt the development, set to be considerably larger than the current home, would ruin the community.

At a planning meeting in September, residents had threatened to take Barnet Council to the High Court if it approved the plans, saying key documents required by law had not been submitted by the developer. The council deferred making a decision at that meeting.

CCHT now insists it will be submitting a new application.

A CCHT spokeswoman said: “To ensure absolute transparency and to provide as much reassurance as possible, we have withdrawn the current application and will be resubmitting the same application, but with further information to resolve concerns about daylight/sunlight and some other issues.

“We remain committed to continued discussion with neighbours about our proposals.”