Save Radley Lakes campaigners have suffered a blow in their fight to prevent RWE npower from filling Thrupp lake with millions of tonnes of spent fuel ash from the coal-fired Didcot power station.

Oxfordshire County Council planning officers have recommended that the application should be approved.

On Monday, councillors on the Planning and Regulation Committee meet at County Hall, Oxford, to discuss the application for a new clay-lined and bunded ash lagoon in Lake E, known as Thrupp lake, to store ash pumped from Didcot.

The lake would eventually be restored as a nature site once dumping ended.

A report toMonday's meeting says the lake is located in a complex of former gravel pits, most of which have already been filled with PFA under a permission granted in 1982. Because the new proposal involved raising final land levels and the lining of the lake with clay to meet environmental standards set by the Environment Agency, the development was not covered by the old permission.

The report states: "The current disposal lagoons at Radley are nearly full and it has proved impossible to reuse or recycle all of the ash produced.

"In order to continue to generate electricity Didcot power station must have a disposal facility for the ash that cannot be reused or recycled.

"The power station occupies an important position as one of the key sources of electricity generation in the south of England."

Many objections have been received because the lake and its surroundings are valued as a local ecological and recreational resource. There have also been concerns raised about pollution and flooding issues.

The report adds: "However, these issues are adequately addressed in the Environmental Statement and the application includes an ecology led restoration plan. Neither the Environment Agency nor English Nature have objected to the application.

"The adjoining lake, Lake F, (Bullfield) is to be retained, ensuring that some of the most important ecological and amenity value of the immediate area remains."

The report concludes that there is a strong need for this development, and the restoration proposals adequately mitigate adverse environmental impacts.

Save Radley Lakes activist David Guyoncourt said: "We are disappointed at the recommendation but in the end it is up to councillors to decide. They must take into account the strong body of public opinion that includes more than 3,000 objections and a petition with 11,500 names."

Campaigners descended on the power plant at Didcot last Friday to hand in a 11,500-name petition with the blunt message: 'Hands off Radley Lakes'.

But power station manager John Rainford told a delegation headed by Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris that there was no alternative but to dump spent fuel ash in Thrupp lake.a Mr Rainford said: "Didcot operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and if we don't have this facility we can't guarantee security of supply."