RESIDENTS are mounting a campaign to block a 15,000-home eco-town proposed for Selby district.

Last month, The Press revealed developer GMI Property's plans for an enormous new town proposed for land between Beal, Kellington and Eggborough.

The scheme has won the backing of Selby MP John Grogan, but district councillors have branded the proposals "ludicrous insanity", saying the site is totally inappropriate and that the settlement will be nothing more than a commuter town.

Two public meeting were held during the week. On Wednesday night, more than 300 people attended a gathering in Kellington. The following evening more than 500 people packed into the village hall in Eggborough, with many residents turned away at the door because of the lack of space.

Eggborough ward councillor John McCartney said: "These plans have been met with bemusement, anger and concern.

"People are bemused as to why they've picked this site and angry at the local MP for supporting it - people I've spoken to aren't very impressed with that."

He said campaigners would be publishing leaflets every week with updates on the situation.

"This would be the biggest town in North Yorkshire if it goes ahead," he said.

"They're talking about 15,000 properties for young people with kids. If you work on four people per household, that's 60,000 people, it's huge.

"This is something that will devastate the area."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced in July he wanted to build ten eco-towns to meet the country's environmental and housing needs.

GMI has dubbed its proposed eco-town Willow Green. As well as homes, the settlement would include more than a dozen schools, recreation and leisure areas and several economic and business zones.

Coun McCartney said the town would surround Kellington in the northeast and come right up to the edges of Beal in the northwest and Eggborough in the southwest.

He said some of the land was on a floodplain and much of it suffered from subsidence because of previous mining in the area.

He hit out at Mr Grogan for not supporting their campaign, saying it would make gaining access to the right people in Government more difficult.

"Without an MP, it's difficult to contact the senior civil servants and ministers we need to talk to," Coun McCartney said, "but we're versatile people and we've managed to contact the relevant people - we're hoping they'll see sense.

"This has been done completely outside the normal planning process. The whole thing is ludicrous insanity."

But Mr Grogan said eco-towns were necessary to help solve the UK's housing shortage and cut carbon emissions.

"Since last summer, the Government has been asking councils to put forward a site for an eco-town," he said. No council in either West or North Yorkshire has responded with a definite suggestion.

"I myself believe that as well as providing much needed housing for families, an eco-town would also be a boost to the district."