West Dorset Tory MP Chris Loder is opposing Conservative leaders at Dorset Council over their vision for future housing in the county.

He says the 4,000-home Dorchester North extension, put forward as a 'preferred option' by the council should not go ahead.

Speaking at a meeting last night, the MP said the council would do better to support housing growth in villages and smaller towns which would support local shops, village schools and rural jobs and allow families to stay local.

Mr Loder says the area already has too many second and holiday homes.

"We do have a need to house local people who live and work here. We need to enable local people to be able to live locally, one of the big reasons why I am a supporter of Community Land Trusts," said the MP.

Dorset Council was criticised repeatedly throughout the meeting for not listening to local people – with planning portfolio holder Cllr David Walsh not responding to an invitation to attend.

He has denied claims in the past that the council's mind is made up and has said that it will listen to local views in response to the Local Plan proposals.

The authority is looking to find land for more than 30,000 new homes over the next 17 years to meet government targets.

The online meeting, which was fully booked within a couple of hours of being made available, was organised by STAND, the local group opposing the North Dorchester proposals, being put forward by Persimmon Homes and backed as a preferred option by the Dorset Council.

Several speakers at the meeting called for a return to council housing, or improved housing association provision, to help keep younger people in the area. The difference between average house price and average wages locally is among the highest in the country.

Mike Joslin said the current housing market, which was dictated by developers, gave local people little control over their own destiny. He said there should only be building to meet local need, at prices people could afford.

"This is speculative…it doesn't consider the genuine local needs for affordable housing," he said.

Retired local architect Paul Scott said he understood why Dorset Council was tempted by a proposal which provided the numbers of new homes it needed and might have been convinced that one blot on the landscape was better than several.

He said the better option would be to spread new homes across the county's 300-plus villages and smaller towns: "We could regenerate our villages by building a few homes in each of them…a sprinkling of houses could bring them back to life," he said.