Plans for a big business park extension that could create hundreds of jobs have been rejected due to the environmental impact.
Developers wanted to build the industrial, storage and distribution complex on a 21.5 acre site at Castle Donington, not far from East Midlands Airport in north Leicestershire.
They said it could have created 250 jobs.
However North West Leicestershire District Council’s planning committee unanimously turned down the scheme which they judged was outside the village limits and encroached too much into the countryside.
There had been objections to the scheme from both Castle Donington and Lockington-cum-Hemington parish councils.
A further 80 objections came mainly from members of the public, largely complaining about the loss of land separating Castle Donington from Lockington and Hemington.
Brackley Property Developments, which is behind the proposal, could yet appeal against the refusal of permission to build on land behind a big Available Car showroom.
The company had said: “The proposed development is necessary, proportionate and sustainable.
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“It will deliver substantial economic benefits and meet an objectively assessed need for additional employment land in the form of small to medium sized light industrial, general industrial and storage and distribution units for local and regional occupiers who wish to expand or relocate into the area.”
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Planning committee chairman councillor Nigel Smith said: “While we want to encourage new employment and economic investment, developments of this nature must be in the right place.
“This development is outside the limits of development in the Local Plan that we worked incredibly hard over a number of years to implement.
“We were also concerned about the intrusion on the land that separates Castle Donington from Lockington and Hemington.
“On balance we feel it was appropriate to refuse the application on these grounds.”