Planners refused permission for a concrete plant outside Thame, after receiving more than 200 letters of objection.

South Oxfordshire District Council's northern area planning committee refused the application to set up a small coated roadstone and ready-mix concrete plant on the former Lucy Castings site alongside the town's ring road.

Councillors objected to the plans, despite recommendations from planning officers that that the development should go ahead.

Planning officers said the site already had an industrial use -- the Lucy plant closed a year ago -- and said there were no good planning reasons for refusing it.

Speaking after the meeting, applicant David Glenn, of Newbury company Landmine Associates, said he was very disappointed at the decision and the way the committee had gone against officers' recommendations.