A U-TURN on opposition to government plans to build houses on East Dorset's green belt is being recommended to councillors.

Members of East Dorset District Council have been given a report warning of a crisis in affordable housing in the district.

But campaigners for green spaces from Wimborne to West Parley have reacted with alarm to the report's recommendation that the council should no longer raise objections to so-called urban extensions for housing on grounds of protecting the green belt.

Richard Heaslip, who speaks for campaigners in Corfe Mullen, West Parley and Wimborne, said that the written advice of the council's policy chief had come as a "bombshell".

"The public will be astonished that so soon after public statements from both past and present leaders of the council that councillors should be asked to reverse this policy," said Mr Heaslip.

But Cllr Spencer Flower, the leader of the council, said the cross-party opposition to the government's proposals had been on the record since 2006.

He said the final say would come from councillors and not the authority's paid officials.

"The council will debate this matter again and ultimately it will be for elected members to decide," said Cllr Flower.

Councillors will meet tomorrow to consider a report by William Wallace, the authority's head of policy planning.

Mr Wallace's report says that right-to-buy laws for council tenants, long- term underfunding and a growth in the number of households have left the district in desperate need of social housing.

The inflated price of so-called "brownfield" sites means they are not the answer to the district's need for cheap housing, the report says.

A lack of suitable sites had led East Dorset to miss out on government cash for affordable housing, Mr Wallace wrote.