INDEPENDENT MP Bob Spink has accused Castle Point Council Tories of electioneering over green belt policy.

The authority has voted to back Conservative central office plans to ditch regional house building targets in order to protect local green belts.

But the move has come just six months after the same Tory councillors voted in September to allow 5,000 new homes to be built in the borough, as part of its core strategy – a blueprint for future development in the borough.

Dr Spink, who himself is heading up the Save Our Green Belt party at the forthcoming general election, said: “It’s a pity the Tories voted to build on our green belt and flood plain in the first place.

“People feel party politics should have no place in local government, which should be about serving people.”

The Labour Government brought in a system in which regional assemblies decide housing targets in order to build three million extra homes across the country by 2020.

The assemblies have since clashed with many councils, and the Tories say the system does not work and power should be handed back to local authorities.

In September, 20 Conservative councillors voted to approve the council’s core strategy, which set out where 5,000 new homes should go.

Thundersley Tory councillor Bill Dick defended the council’s change of position.

He said: “If we hadn’t published a core strategy, developers would be free to build houses where they liked.

“Before, if you turned down a developer’s plans for new houses they could challenge you in the courts.

“With the core strategy in place we can point to specific areas where new building is acceptable and that preserves the rest of the borough’s green belt.

“But a Conservative government would scrap the targets and remove power from the planning inspectorate to overrule council decisions. There would be no need for a core strategy.”