Petitioners have won through, after plans for a waste and recycling plant were sent to the scrapheap by Surrey County Council.

The petition of 2,500 signatures, with 700 letters of objection, convinced councillors the plans for Weylands Treatment Works were not for them.

More than one year after the application was submitted, county councillors voted against the proposals for the 10.74ha site, which would have dealt with 195,000 tonnes of rubbish each year.

The applicant, Clean Power Properties Limited, wanted a modern recycling and recovery park, with an autoclave and anaerobic digestion facility, a materials recycling facility, skip hire and workshop units.

The proposed building would have also included a stack of three engine exhausts, standing at 25m, and the current access from Molesey Road would have been closed and new access created on Lyon Road.

After an hour of debate at a meeting of the planning and regularly committee on April 23, 10 councillors voted to refuse the plans, with two members of the committee abstaining.

Councillors were told the plans would only create a 1 per cent increase on the number of HGVs travelling to and from the site, which received numerous head shakes and calls out from those in the public gallery.

Opponents claimed the increase would be nearer 30 per cent and the impact on residential roads and properties and pollution were among the reasons objectors gave refusal.

Speaking on behalf of objectors, Joseph Hocking said: “There are very special reasons why this should be rejected. This would have a genuine detrimental effect on our day to day lives.

“The current waste site at Walton is badly managed. The failings of the present site are not a reason to inflict this on our neighbourhood. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Mick Flannigan, also speaking on behalf of objectors, said: “There is no trunk road or A-road providing access. Rydens Road is residential and unsuitable for considerable HGV traffic. There are six schools near Weylands. HGVs travelling past them poses an unacceptable danger.

“Sometimes it is not possible for two lorries to pass each other without mounting the kerb.”

Pam Ling, a third objector, told the committee Surrey was still a “wide open community with many other sites suitable” for the development.

James Waterhouse, agent for the applicant, said permission for the development should be granted as he believed it met the very special circumstances to allow development on greenbelt.

Mr Waterhouse said: “There is a clear need in Surrey for this and there are no alternative sites.”

Rachael Lake, borough and county councillor for Walton, said: “There may not be another one in Surrey but there is around Heathrow. Just on that alone, there is a facility within 30 miles that can take part of this waste that they are planning, with no contracts, to take.”

The application was refused six months after it was first scheduled to go before the committee, but was repeatedly delayed while the council awaited additional information from the applicant.