Plans for a major new industrial estate in Keynsham have been thrown out amid fears schoolchildren will be "wiped out" by HGVs.

Councillor Lucy Hodge said she did not have confidence in data showing the new junction onto the A4 was safe and claimed the masterplan for the wider area had been hidden from planning chiefs and the public.

Bath and North East Somerset Council allocated the land for employment to establish the town as a significant business location and reduce commuting.

The outline plans proposed up to 5,700sqm for business, industrial process, general industrial and storage uses that councillors feared could result in another concrete factory being built close to people's homes.

They refused Places For People Strategic Land's application, saying the noise, pollution and safety risk could be reduced by creating a new access road onto World's End Lane, which if landowners agree could be widened to remove pinch points.

Councillor Hodge said: "It's been objected to by Keynsham Parish Council, Saltford Parish Council, Saltford Environment Group and 147 objectors.

"Most raise concerns about highway safety. At some point you have to apply common sense to this process. We've read the data. I don't have confidence in it.

"One HGV trying to get out of that junction too quickly from a B2 site could cause a collision that could wipe out a whole number of children on that road coming home from school."

The masterplan says the primary access will be via Pixash Lane but Councillor Hodge said the changes had been hidden from councillors and the public had not been consulted on it.

Councillor Duncan Hounsell said the 83 seconds HGV are expected to wait to pull out onto the A4 is a long time, adding: "The pressure to put your foot down and move out would be almost impossible to stop."

Proposing refusal, he said there would be a significant impact on road safety and the application was against council policy.

Councillor Andy Wait, the ward member for Keynsham East, said residents' lives would be blighted if the committee failed to look at the big picture of traffic in the area.

"We should be planning how to remove HGVs from this section, not adding to them," he said. "As we've seen elsewhere in Keynsham, having a B2 site close to many houses is a recipe for disaster. There's no reason why another concrete making facility couldn't go there, or even an iron foundry.

"Light industrial use should be the maximum allowable activity on this site."

Councillor Hal MacFie said it would "clearly be more reasonable" to have an entrance on Worlds End Lane and a one-way system that would prevent avoidable harm from noise and emissions.

Council highways officers did not object to the scheme and planning officers recommended approval, with Chris Griggs-Trevarthan telling members: "You have to take a holistic view in relation to air pollution and emissions. The site it allocated for employment use.

"Part of the reason is to allow Keynsham to increase its self-containment and develop itself as a more significant business location, and therefore have more jobs with less out-commuting."

Planning agent Ralph Salmon said Worlds End Lane was too narrow to provide the main access but it may be possible in future if land ownership issues to tackle pinch points are addressed.

He said the scheme was safe, sustainable and deliverable.

The application was refused by six votes to four against.