The leader of Norfolk County Council has hit out at an inspector’s decision to allow 170 new homes to be built in his ward - saying he is “appalled” by it.

This month, the Planning Inspectorate gave the green light for a new housing development to be built close to Memorial Hall in Brundall - a decision which was initially turned down by Broadland Council.

Among those to object to the scheme was Andrew Proctor, who represents the ward at County Hall alongside his role as county council leader.

Following the decision, Mr Proctor has written to the Planning Inspectorate, describing it as “perverse”.

He wrote: “What this decision has done is drive a coach and horses through the local plan as far as Brundall is concerned, and to a certain extent other parts of Broadland and Greater Norwich.

“It leaves the community with a nasty taste in its mouth that the overriding considerations of the local plan and the Brundall Neighbourhood Plan have been so contemptuously swept aside.

“And that yet again, a predatory developer has got its way at an appeal.”

The application from Quantum Land Ltd proposes that 170 new homes be built in the village, a third of which are set to be affordable, with a new sports field also included in the plans.

It was refused by Broadland’s planning committee last year, but now benefits from outline planning permission following the inspectorate’s decision.

A campaign against it, Brundall Future, saw hundreds of signatures collected in a petition, which helped persuade Broadland councillors to refuse the plan.

Steve Millbank, one of the organisers of the campaign, said the appeal had caused him to “lose all faith in local democracy”.

He said: “For us as a group who have been opposing this for the best of four years it feels like we have been badly let down by the system.

“How can more than 2,000 people, a parish council and a district council all oppose a scheme locally, only for one person to decide it can go ahead? It just isn’t democratic.

“It makes a total mockery of local decision making.”