Councillors in south Wales have turned down an application for a Welsh rugby academy to nurture the game's future stars.

After a heated two-hour debate, members of Bridgend council's development control committee voted by 15 votes to 14 on Thursday to reject the application.

Protesters said the site is home to the threatened dormouse

The meeting to debate the plans by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) was picketed by residents opposed to the development in the south Wales town which would have included houses and business units.

Welsh Assembly members from all four parties had added their objections to the scheme which would have been built on prime countryside.

The WRU had been seeking approval to build the National Rugby Academy along with a business park, hotel and 210 houses on a rural site south of the A48 at Bridgend.

Residents said it would have caused problems for existing communities if extra housing was built, and even put together a protest song to highlight their concerns.

They said the site, at Island Farm, provides an important habitat for dormice and said they would have called on the assembly to call-in the plan if it had won approval.

The WRU wants to develop a team to grace the Millennium Stadium

The academy scheme was part of the plan by the WRU's new group chief executive David Moffett to focus on the grassroots of the game in Wales.

In a statement ahead of the meeting, the WRU said it had opted for a mixed-use for the site, including housing, in order to raise extra money from developers.

'Silent majority'

"Bridgend is an ideal location for our needs - being central for the mass of the population and with good road links.

"We have the best stadium in the world - if we want to develop the best team in the world to play there, a national rugby academy is an essential element to make that happen."

Bridgend AM Carwyn Jones sided with the objectors, stressing that the area concerned was never intended for housing.

But Bridgend council leader Jeff Jones had said the silent majority of voters would have been in favour of the scheme.

He said: "We have assembly members so worried about the election next May, they will do anything.

"There's got to be a National Academy of Rugby in Wales somewhere."