The unexpected withdrawal of a controversial waste treatment site planned just yards away from homes in Walton has caused “great relief” for hundreds of residents.

From this week: Weylands waste treatment site yards away from homes recommended for refusal by Surrey County Council planning officers

Developer Clean Power Properties had eyed up industrial land in Lyon Road to build the Weylands Treatment Works, an “autoclave and anaerobic digestion facility”.

Waste brought to the site from around the county would be compressed in a pressure chamber at the 6,000 sq m recycling facility.

The plans, submitted in 2013, also included offices, a staff welfare centre and an education centre.

But planning officers at Surrey County Council, who had earmarked the site as part of the Surrey Waste Plan 2008, recommended the plans be refused in a long-expected report published on Friday, July 1.

Planning officer Samantha Murphy had said: “The proposed development is inappropriate and by definition harmful to the green belt and does not preserve openness and conflicts with the purposes of protecting green belt land including protecting the countryside from encroachment and restricting the sprawl of built-up areas.”

Insufficient information as to where waste treated at the site would originate from, lack of ‘very special circumstances’ which outweigh harm to the green belt and outdated and insufficient information for ground contamination were further reasons Ms Murphy recommended the plans be refused.

The application would have gone before Surrey’s planning committee on July 13, but developers withdrew it on Wednesday.

Rydens Road resident Mick Flannigan said: “Obviously this is a great relief for many hundreds of local residents. We were cautiously optimistic, as the officer was plainly unimpressed by the application and had recommended refusal.

“Let's hope that Clean Power has got the message loud and clear, so that they won't return with yet another ill-conceived application.

“Their two abortive applications have both wasted a huge amount of officer time and have caused immense distress to residents of this whole area. The saga has been going on for years and we earnestly hope we have seen the back of it.

From November: Controversial Weylands waste treatment site in Walton recommended for refusal ahead of council meeting next week

“It is intensely annoying that the application has been withdrawn at such a late stage, after so many people have been put to so much trouble. The Weylands site has always been totally unsuitable for a waste operation and we have been asking SCC to delete it from their county waste plan.”

Walton South councillor Christine Elmer said she worried the plans would be approved at the next time of asking because air quality had not been included as a reason to refuse them.

“This hasn’t gone away. Because we don’t have that fifth reason for refusal and it’s not been debated, it will make our case weaker. They can work on those four points. Air quality and odour need to be debated.”

The area would “smell like poo, basically”, if the plant were built, she said.