WREXHAM Council's planning committee has turned down controversial proposals for a new school on a field in Wrexham. 

Plans to create a primary school for 360 children on the Nine Acre field on Chester Road were rejected by councillors on Monday.

The application to allow St Mary's Catholic Primary School to relocate to the site from its current base in the town centre previously attracted almost 360 objections. The Nine Acre Campaign Group was also set up in opposition to the plans. 

And after one hour and 45 minutes of deliberations - which saw planning committee members raised concerns over the loss of open space, road safety, flooding and higher emissions - the application was refused. 

Ten members of the planning committee voted in favour to refuse it, and five against. 

The Leader:

Planning officer Matthew Phillips said the development and relocation would ‘deliver significant improvements’ for St Mary's Catholic Primary School and there is no "plan B" for an alternative site. However, some planning committee members suggested that the former Groves School site is a more suitable location for the new school. 

Maesydre councillor Corin Jarvis, said: "If we lose this piece of land today, however small and insignificant some people may believe it to be, we will never get this green space back.”

The land is not public open space and could be subject to future applications for development. 

A decision was originally meant to be made on the application in January but was delayed after the Welsh Government was requested to call the application in for further scrutiny.

Ministers later chose not to intervene as they said there were no grounds for them to do so.

Further delays were caused by the local elections in May with pre-election rules preventing decisions being made on controversial issues.