Objectors to a "super highways depot" have heaved a sigh of relief after the announcement that the plans have been scrapped.

Kent County Council has agreed to overturn planning permission for a salt store and gritting lorry "superdepot" in London Road, Wrotham.

The move comes in response to an forthcoming judicial review of the council’s decision to grant itself planning permission for the depot, which would have been built on a partially greenfield site within the green belt and Kent North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The council decided it would not contest the judicial review.

The news has been welcomed by Mike Taylor, of the Borough Green Traffic Action Group, which has been fighting the plan for more than a year claiming the depot would bring more traffic to the village.

He said: "This is wonderful news, not entirely unexpected, and largely down to the hard work put in by Wrotham Parish Council."

Hilary Newport, director of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Kent, said building the superdepot would have "set a terrible precedent for development in protected landscapes".

She added: "We regret intensely that so much time and money should have been spent in reversing the decision, but a lorry depot and salt store on this site would have been directly contrary to the council’s own stated policies for protecting Kent’s countryside."