CONTROVERSIAL plans for a travellers' site close to Malvern Link railway station have been thrown out by Malvern Hills District Council.

The decision has been welcomed by nearby residents, and by a council councillor who says the land should be used for car parking to increase the use of the station.

The application was sent in to the council before Christmas by S Doherty and T Donaghue of Nottingham. It called for a site with four pitches for occupation by "gypsy-travellers". It attracted strong opposition from residents of Redland Road, which backs onto the site.

In its decision, the council's planning department says using the land as a traveller site "would prejudice the future development of this site to assist in the development of transport infrastructure improvements related to Malvern Link railway station".

It also cited the problem of noise from the railway affecting future residents of the site, said the proposed access through an existing business would be dangerous, and said overlooking from the site into properties in Redland Road would have an adverse effect.

Although there is a shortfall of pitches for travellers in the Malvern Hills district, the planners concluded that this is outweighed by the "adverse impact of the development upon the residential amenity of the occupiers of Redland Road and the objections raised by the local highway authority to the proposed vehicular access on highway safety grounds".

Link county councillor Paul Tuthill said: "I'm delighted by this decision. It's the right decision and for the right reasons.

"This was never a realistic location for a traveller site and I will continue to press for it to become an overflow car park for the Link station.

"Usage of the station has increased in recent years, and providing more car parking, as a kind of park-and-ride project, will help us to relieve the pressure on the main road between Malvern and Worcester."

Brian Metcalf, a resident of Redland Road, said: "The residents here are absolutely delighted with this planning result. We were all pretty concerned about this, so all our neighbours will be very relieved. Common sense has prevailed in this case."

When the application was made, residents told the Gazette that the site had been occupied by travellers in 2009 and 2011, resulting in noise and crime problems.

in 1996, a planning application to use the location as a site for touring caravans was refused permission, for very similar reasons for the latest refusal.

A request for a comment sent to the applicants' agent this week remained unanswered.