BOURNEMOUTH is facing a grim future if the recommendations to build more than 16,000 homes in the town are approved.

That's the bleak warning from councillors and MPs who are coming to terms with the double whammy levied by the government-appointed panel.

Under pressure to build new homes, councillors had reluctantly proposed to accept 13,600 new properties between now and 2026 with the proviso that the green belt remain untouched.

But they have been left reeling by the panel's recommendation that the town accommodate 14,600 new dwellings plus an additional 1,500 on the narrow strip of green belt land at north Bournemouth.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood is seeking an urgent meeting with Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly - the only person with the power who can alter the recommendations.

He said: "Bournemouth is being unfairly targeted by civil servants based in Exeter who have no appreciation of the impact over-development is having on the character of our town. We are already bearing the brunt of existing housing targets for the south west region.

"The consequences of over-development is plain to see with increased congestion and high density housing leading to anti-social problems as residents' quality of life is challenged."

Ken Mantock, former chair of planning and member of Bournemouth Civic Society, said the report's recommendations were the equivalent of "a two-fingered salute."

He said: "Quite frankly, we have got the worst of every possible world.

"We proposed a level of development that the town felt was just about appropriate but they have turned around and said You're not having that. It's got to be even higher and you've got to lose the green belt.' "How can we maintain the character that makes Bournemouth what it is when we have now got a government policy that says open spaces and green belt must be built on and homes must be built at a density that no-one wants?"

Cllr John Beesley, current chair of the planning board, said he doubted whether the recommended housing levels were achievable.

"An increase of this magnitude may be possible in towns where it is just a case of finding further redundant industrial sites to develop or additional fields to build on but this is not the situation in Bournemouth.

"Here we are already building almost all of our new homes on previously developed land and have very few unused sites available."