Staff in town planning jobs have turned down a proposal by rugby club London Irish to build a new training complex and turn its existing facilities into a new housing development.
If the scheme had been approved, the club would have built a new £12 million headquarters, while their old site would have made way for almost 200 new properties.
But officials at Spelthorne Borough Council rejected the plan following a protest march of around 500 local residents against the development that took place earlier this month, reports BBC News.
Heather Morgan, head of planning and housing strategy at the council, said: "The council felt the scheme failed to provide an adequate justification in terms of housing need."
Last month, another area of the south-east of England was given approval for a large-scale town planning job when mayor of London Boris Johnson rubberstamped a £4.8 billion regeneration project in Brent Cross.
The work on the area - which includes the construction of more than 7,500 new homes - is set to take around two decades to complete.
