Plans to build a waste recovery plant in the Green Belt between Oxford and Kidlington could spell the end of one of the area's landmarks.

The project would see a giant new building replace the 1940s grain silo alongside the A34 and the Oxford-Bicester railway line at Water Eaton.

Up to 150,000 tonnes of waste a year - including aluminium and steel, paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and wood - would be processed at the site next to the Water Eaton park-and-ride centre.

The silo would be demolished to make way for a main building, waste reception area, storage containers and a car park. The site would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ewelme-based Grundon Waste Management has submitted the plan to Oxford- shire County Council, which is responsible for waste management.

The firm said an average of 186 lorries a day would visit the site.

But the proposals, which would create 72 jobs, have sparked concern.

Cherwell District Council's planning officers believe the plan is premature, because the county's minerals and waste development plan has yet to be completed.

They are also concerned about the impact on the Green Belt and claim the new building, which would be 70 per cent of the height of the existing building, but cover six times the floor area, could be visually more harmful than the grain silo.

Michael Gibbard, the district councillor for Yarnton, Gosford and Water Eaton, said: "We need to protect the Green Belt as much as we are able.

The silo's a blot on the landscape, but one that people have got used to. You can see the grain silo from so far away, but the big roof (of the waste centre) would certainly be an eyesore."

Bruce Tremayne, chairman of the Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, was also concerned about extra traffic and the impact on the Green Belt.

But he added: "We're obviously delighted that they are going to take down that very ugly building."

The silo was built by the Government in 1940 and used to stockpile grain during the Second World War and Cold War. It has not been used since the late 1980s.

Craig Simmons, a Green Party city and county councillor in Oxford, said: "Our view is that it's a brilliant idea and long overdue.

"There will be a different pattern of lorry journeys, but these are lorries that would have been going somewhere else anyway."

Carl Smith, clerk to Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, said he was concerned about operational hours, extra lorries, noise and pollution.

Grundon spokesman Ruth Roll said: "Even when householders sort their waste into boxes or bags, it doesn't go straight off to be recycled, because it's still quite heavily contaminated."

She said the company was hoping to secure an agreement with Oxfordshire's district councils to sort recyclable household waste.

The county council is expected to consider the planning application in January.