PLANS for a Tarmac overflow car park at Stonehenge Visitor Centre have been rejected after councillors described them as a "blot on the landscape".

English Heritage had proposed making 133 permanent parking spaces on the grass overflow car park which is unusable during the wet winter months.

Council officers recommended the plan for approval but Cllr Ian West objected on grounds that it would damage the World Heritage site.

He said: "We want to see this project go forward and become a success but does it have to come at such at price?"

Janice Hassett from the Stonehenge Traffic Action Group called the proposal an "eyesore" and claimed it was "not in keeping with beautiful Salisbury Plain".

English Heritage said that they needed the extra spaces after demand for the new visitor centre exceeded expectations, but councillors were unsympathetic.

Cllr Peter Edge called for English Heritage to re-submit the proposal with coloured Tarmac that would not be such a eyesore for visitors when the car park was not in use.

"You would expect to see green grass on a World Heritage site," Cllr Ian Tomes added.

Cllr John Smale said: "I don't think that we should go on scarring the terrain."

But Cllr Richard Clewer said he saw no planning reason to reject the proposal, claiming English Heritage would stand a good chance of winning an appeal.

"The damage has been done," Cllr Richard Brittain added.

"Changing the colour won't make a difference. The cars are already allowed to park there."

Chairman of the Southern Area Planning Committee, Chris Devine, blasted English Heritage for their "intransigence".

He said: "It is their blinkered obsession with having a clean landscape around Stonehenge.

"If you had a landscaped car park, it would take away some of the harshness of the visitor centre.

"Where else in Wiltshire would you allow such a car park without landscaping."

The decision to reject the proposal was by eight votes to two and, afterwards, English Heritage said that they would review the options open to them.

A spokesman said: "We are obviously disappointed by the decision as we believe these changes would improve the overall experience of visitors to Stonehenge.

"Enormous care had been taken in preparing the application."