A district councillor is worried that plans for a ground maintenance hub in an Oxfordshire town could return despite being withdrawn.

South Oxfordshire District Council has removed its application to build a compound comprising of staff welfare, cleaning, and office Portacabins, as well as parking bays for up to 18 vehicles, a skip area, fuel storage, open storage and several shipping containers on the land to the west of Sir Frank Williams Way in Great Western Park, Didcot.

The withdrawal follows objections from nearly 70 residents, some of whom said they were “concerned and disgusted” that it would be built on a site intended for a wildflower meadow.

Didcot Town Council also objected to the application, as did Harwell Parish Council.

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A spokeswoman for the district council said it was working on the “next steps in relation to a planning application that better demonstrates what is proposed.”

Didcot West councillor Ian Snowdon believes the council only withdrew the plans because of the local elections in May and worries the application will return afterwards.

He said: “My fears are that it could come back after the May elections. It might just be deferred.

“It doesn’t stop residents being anxious. There was one lady who was selling her house at the time and was worried it would affect the sale.

“I personally think that councillors were embarrassed. As a Didcot councillor I’m used to the district council dumping on us. They really don’t have any respect for Didcot.

“It’s a real frustration to residents that we don’t get the same treatment even though we’re the largest town in the district.

“One thing that Didcot doesn’t need is any brownfield industrial sites. We already have those empty spaces.”

The compound was proposed to serve Great Western Park as the district council prepares to take over the maintenance and management of the site from the developers.

A spokeswoman said the application had been withdrawn because of “misinformation circulating” about the proposal.”

She also highlighted plans to plant additional areas of wildflowers in the area to offset the loss of the original wildflower meadow.

She said: “Following our engagement with the local community, we’ll be working with our planning agent to determine next steps in relation to a planning application that better demonstrates what is proposed and the very clear and positive rationale for this.

“The application will aim to best serve the whole resident population of the Great Western Park community, who will be able to benefit from beautiful public spaces and allow us to best manage them in the most efficient and climate responsible way that we can.”