Developers’ plans to bring the first family homes for more than 50 years to the Sackville Hotel site on Hove seafront have been thrown out.

The site of the hotel, in Kingsway, Hove, has been derelict for years.

But developers’ revised plans for a modern development of nine homes have been thrown out by Brighton and Hove City Council’s planning officers.

They said the six-storey glass-fronted seafront terrace and adjoining homes would harm the character of Sackville Gardens Conservation Area.

They add it would also impact on other properties in the area. Officers also said they were concerned that it did not take into account the potential development of 191 Kingsway, which stands next door.

Ward councillor Graham Cox said: “Now council planning officers have turned this application down, I hope all parties can work to together to amend the scheme so that it is acceptable.

“This is an important site which deserves a high quality development.

“My reading of the refusal is that all is not lost, and that it should be possible to make the changes necessary so approval can be obtained.”

Brighton-based businessmen Robert Webb and Michael Deol, who bought the site near the junction of Sackville Gardens for £1.5 million in 2006, are behind the plans. The pair, who run restaurants throughout the city, planned to restore the 45-bedroom hotel to its 1950s heyday with the creation of a new five-star complex and flats.

Those plans were delayed when the roof of the building collapsed in 2006.

A revised proposal, which included the mock Georgian terrace and a three-bedroom detached house at the rear, was submitted but then rejected by the local authority last year.