PLANS for a new £35 million motorway service station near junction 12 of the M5 were approved by Stroud District Council's development control committee yesterday, Tuesday.

The 66-acre development, at Ongars Farm in Brookthorpe, was a joint application submitted by Westmorland Ltd and Gloucestershire Gateway Trust.

Six councillors voted to grant the scheme permission, with four against.

Protesters with banners gathered outside Ebley Mill to voice both their support and opposition to the scheme, which is modelled on Westmorland’s award-winning Tebay services on the M6 in Cumbria.

It includes a north and south bound motorway service area with facilities including a cafe, a takeaway, shops, toilets, tourist information point, a fuel station and parking space.

Gloucestershire Gateway Ltd, the partnership of Westmorland and the trust, claims the plans will create about 300 jobs.

It also says the need for a new motorway service area at Brookthorpe is supported by Department for Transport policy, which identifies the site as one of half a dozen core gaps in the UK motorway network.

The controversial application led to a barrage of responses - both for and against - to SDC. Among those who commented were several MPs, parish councils, various statutory and charitable bodies and hundreds of residents.

More than 1,000 names were listed on a petition against the application and SDC also received objections from organisations including Brookthorpe with Whaddon Parish, Upton St Leonards Parish Council, the Cotswold Conservation Board, Natural England and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Among those who wrote in support was economic partnership Gloucestershire First.

It is thought some of the opponents of the scheme will appeal the decision.

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