The long battle to get a village cemetery extended has suffered a devastating setback.

On Wednesday members of the Royal Borough’s Windsor Urban Development Management Panel turned down an application by vicar Reverend La Stacey to allow the extension of the cemetery at St John the Baptist Church in Eton Wick.

They were responding to concerns by the Environment Agency that the extension risked causing pollution to groundwater.

A large majority of six out of the nine councillors meeting at Windsor's Guildhall accepted the recommendation by their officers to refuse the application for an extension – but two voted against the rejection and one abstained.

Cllr Jesse Grey, who represents Datchet on the Royal Borough, made no secret of his annoyance after the meeting.He said: “It seems ridiculous to me. I don’t see how it could possibly cause contamination. The Environment Agency seems to say no on principle to things and we seem to just go along with them when it suits us.”

Eton mayor, Cllr Derek Bishop – who chairs the town council which has supported the extension – said: “I’m absolutely appalled. People have been being buried there for hundreds of years.”

Villagers have campaigned for years to have their churchyard extended. Only people who live or die in the parish, which covers Eton Wick, Eton and Boveney and those on the electoral roll of the church can be buried there and there are only three to five burials a year.

It is anticipated that the existing churchyard will be full in two to three years’ time. But some residents of the parish still wish to be buried here after 2020 because it is close to their homes and families.

Permission to extend the churchyard was first granted in 2008 but was allowed to lapse.

By the time it was revived following vigorous campaigning in the village, new rules required tests to be carried out through the EA to check the affect on water levels underground.