A new railway station, a 1,000-space car park and a waste recycling plant are posing a threat to the Green Belt north of Oxford, according to campaigners.

Planning permission has been given to a 1.6-hectare waste centre between Oxford and Kidlington on a grain silo site, while a public inquiry in the summer will consider the Chiltern Railways plan for a new station and car park at the same site, off Banbury Road.

It is thought to be unlikely that both schemes could be squeezed on to the same site. But local people fear that both schemes could be given the go-ahead — with the waste plant and an exisiting aggregates facility shunted on to adjacent farmland.

Chairman of the Oxford Green Belt Network, Ian Scargill, said he was shocked that County Hall had finally granted Grundon Waste permission to knock down the silo and build a materials recovery facility, which is expected to handle up to 150,000 tonnes of waste a year.

He said the decision came only weeks after the Chiltern Railways application to the Transport Secretary to build a station and car park on the same site near Water Eaton park-and-ride as part of a £250m package to create a new route from Oxford to London Marylebone, via Bicester.

Mr Scargill said: “There is clearly a clash of interests between the station and the waste facility. It seems extraordinary the county council has rushed ahead with permission for the waste facility without thinking of the implications. They must know the station was going to come forward on the same site.”

Mr Scargill said the station was viewed as inevitable but local people were concerned about the traffic implications of a two-deck car park, significantly bigger than the existing Water Eaton park-and-ride.

The new station proposed on the 1940s grain silo site would be a two-storey building with access from the A4165. The car park would be a surface car park, but would be decked if there were demand.

The Chiltern Railways proposals will go before Cherwell District Council for consultation tonight.

An officers’ report to Cherwell councillors says: “The new parkway station with associated car parking is inappropriate development which will have an impact upon the character, appearance and openness of the Green Belt.

“However, it is considered that the harm is outweighed by the very special circumstances case submitted, which states that the proposal will increase the rail capacity along the Birmingham to London rail corridor, benefitting passengers and freight.”

County Hall defended its decision to approve the waste centre at the site earmarked for the station.

Spokesman Owen Morton said: “The council’s planning and regulation committee considered the merits of the waste facility proposal very carefully, with the benefit of a full officer report explaining the reasons why there were very special circumstances for permitting this development in this Green Belt location. Part of the reason was a major source of waste processed at the facility would be from the Oxford area.

“Chiltern Railways’s plans were not published until after the committee resolved to grant permission for the waste facility, and a planning authority is expected to decide the applications that it has before it.

“While two separate proposals may not be compatible on the same site, it is not unusual to have a number of live planning permissions for one piece of land.”