Members of Thanet Council’s planning committee voted by the narrowest of margins to defer a decision about the controversial China Gateway Project to a meeting of the full council.

Now, an extraordinary meeting will be held in September, on a date to be confirmed, to discuss the issue.

The committee voted by 8-7 in favour of the deferral following an amendment by Labour member Cllr Alan Poole.

There were loud cheers and applause from a packed public gallery after the vote was taken.

Many of the campaigners had resigned themselves to the application for the Manston industrial site being approved at the meeting in Margate.

They are worried that water quality could be severely affected by the development as it will stand right over Thanet’s main aquifer, particularly if there is a chemical spill which seeps into the ground or raw sewage is not drained away properly. Objectors also fear there will be a greatly increased number of heavy vehicle movements in the area. The buildings themselves would stand just yards from people’s homes and gardens.

The application is for two distribution buildings, a Gateway building, which would act as a showroom for all the goods produced at the site, along with 18 other employment units, two amenity blocks and a restaurant.

Developers Commercial Group Properties, had to amend their original idea of installing modern septic tanks on the site after the Environment Agency threatened to block the scheme and insisted on links to mains drainage.

If the scheme had been approved, it would have been the first of three planned phases of building large warehouses on farmland in Manston. CGP says the project would create up to 3,000 more jobs as Chinese businesses use them as a distribution hub to export their products around mainland Europe.

Chairman of the planning committee, Cllr Ken Gregory, said: "It is important to ensure that a development of this scale and potential impact is given comprehensive consideration, hence the decision to enable all members to have their say."

Leader of the Labour group Cllr Richard Nicholson said: "This is both a complicated and important decision. I am pleased there were enough members on the planning committee with the sense and courage to agree the report was still not comprehensive enough."