Parish councillors voted in favour of a heavily-opposed planning application at a public meeting this week.

Chesil Bank Parish Council held the meeting to discuss amended plans for a new "safer" access road to be built to a scrap yard in Portesham.

The scrap yard is owned by G.P. Metals and Spares Ltd and is on Bramdon Lane, Portesham.

There were at least 50 objections to the plans on Dorset Councils Partnership’s planning application website.

However, the Parish Council passed the application to the next stage with six votes in favour and three against.

The decision and comments voted upon at the meeting will now be submitted to the District Council’s planning portal.

The Case officer for the application will then read all the comments and make their recommendations for consideration by the planning committee or a delegated decision on the planning application.

Cllr Graham Whitby said: “I’m completely against this plan. The field adjoining the new road will be completely ruined. The landscape will be at great detriment.

“People don’t come to Dorset to see scrap yard or a car park, they come to see the scenery and natural beauty of the landscape.

“To suggest that this application will enable us to control the scrap yard is absolutely ludicrous, ridiculous and unrealistic.

Cllr Ruth Chipp-Marshall said: “I’m very much in favour of the new plan and new road but I am worried about the business expanding.

“I would rather the scrap yard wasn’t there but it has the right to be there, so I feel if we do object an awful lot worse business could go in its place.”

Cllr John Coombe said: “This is an opportunity to control the size of the site and from a planning perspective I can’t see why it shouldn’t be approved.”

Cllr Ray Doggett said: “The scrap yard has a lawful right to be there. The time for objections was 25 years ago.

“Opinion is that it should not be in the AONB, but it is. If we force them to move, they will be owed substantial damages, who would pay it?”

Cllr David Collins said: “I think the safety of the new road is a red herring. It’s not actually going to improve safety of the area and I’m certainly not going to support it.”

Many of the people who objected online attended the public meeting to voice their concerns to councillors in person.

Local resident Philip Milner said: “I am absolutely amazed that you are willing to give the go ahead when so many have written in to say they oppose these plans. I think it’s absolutely disgusting.”

Guy Dickinson, from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, said: “Great weight should be placed on conservation in the AONB so quite simply it shouldn’t be here and shouldn’t be expanded.”

Local resident Vaughan Jones said: “The scrap yard should relocate to an industrial area because it is a blot on the landscape.”

Stuart Bainbridge, who has lived in the area for 11 years, said: “What it will lead to is expansion into the other fields and this would be nothing short of environmental vandalism.”

Roger Taylor, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, said: “I fully support the application for the proposed new entrance which makes the road safer.”

Local resident Frank Stevens said: “This will increase traffic flow and increase the number of HGVs which can create a risk to life, so I don’t think a new entrance will improve safety at all.”