MORE than 175 people turned out to protest over plans for hundreds of new homes in a village.

The meeting at East Bergholt High School on Saturday came ahead of a crunch Court of Appeal hearing.

Babergh Council approved planning applications for 144 homes in Moores Lane, 75 in Heath Road and ten more in Hadleigh Road in August.

Since then, East Bergholt Parish Council has been working with legal advisors to try to find ways to challenge the applications.

The case against the applications is set to take place over one and a half days in the Court of Appeal from October 31.

The meeting was attended by Babergh Council’s leader John Ward and deputy leader Jan Osborne, who took questions from members of the public.

Tony Brigden, a member of the Action East Bergholt group which publicised the meeting, said: "To get almost 200 people on a Saturday morning is extraordinary. It was a pleasant surprise when a number of people came as a show of strength.

"This was a very hostile meeting because the councillors were just doing a general round robin around the villages, for general Q&As.

"This village is very hostile to Babergh's practises and all of that came out - there were a number of very angry people.

"Most of the meeting concerned any issues around planning and planning processes and the way they listen to local views."

Peter Dent, chairman of Action East Bergholt, added he was going to chase up the councillors and ask for timescales for various issues they pledged to look into.

He added: "The councillors took down about 18 points made.

"The key thing now is what are they going to do."

Mr Ward said: “Residents in East Bergholt have real concerns around development and we always knew this would be a major topic on Saturday. There is a local need for more housing but some residents do feel not enough is being done to protect their village from unsuitable development and we in Babergh have to work hard to not only put those protections in place but explain them. There are also major concerns that insufficient consideration is given to inadequate existing infrastructure and that new infrastructure to support development won’t be provided."

Mr Ward said the council now has enough land for housing for the next five years which puts it in a stronger position to refuse inappropriate development.

"We are drafting up a new Joint Local Plan laying out exactly what housing we need and how and where it can be delivered. We’ll be asking our residents to comment on the plan later this year and I’d urge everyone concerned, not just in East Bergholt but across Babergh, to take part in that consultation.”