TEMPERS flared at the Town Hall on Monday as one councillor was drowned out by slow hand clapping and another spectacularly announced her resignation from the Royal Borough's Conservative group.

There was drama and some high profile rebellions at the meeting - held to decide whether the authority should carry the controversial Borough Plan forward to the next stage.

Angry opponents of the proposals claim it threatens the green belt, that the amount of housebuilding it allows would transform the nature of the borough and that there has been insufficient consultation.

It would cover the next 15 years and allow the building of 13,528 new homes - equivalent to 712 a year

The open meeting saw about 250 people crammed into Desborough Hall - in no mood to keep silent.

Planning leader Cllr Derek Wilson was slow hand clapped and drowned out by the crowd as he presented the plan.

But dissent also came from inside the Tory ranks.

Boyn Hill councillor Claire Stretton said: "This is a bad plan" before describing council leader Simon Dudley's promotion of the plan as a 'prime example of his autocratic style'.

She said: "We have seen colleagues shouted at and dismissed. I can no longer support what has been going on since Cllr Dudley took over 13 months ago. With deep regret I'm going to resign from the Conservative administration and continue to serve my constituents as an independent Conservative."

She is the second Conservative to have resigned in a week - following Cllr Charles Hollingsworth from Pinkneys Green.

All but one of Ascot's seven councillors supported the plan to the anger of some residents from their wards.

But in the end 33 voted in favour of moving the Borough Plan forward to its next stage - with 10 voting against.

Patrick Griffin, chairman of Society for the Protection of Ascot and Environs, one of the biggest opponents of the proposals, found positives in an otherwise disappointing night.

"The feeling was that the Borough should have delayed the plans until a meaningful consultation had taken place," the Sunningdale resident said.

"200 to 300 people came out and there will be a ground swell voicing their opposition to the plan when it is published between June 30 and August 25.

"If we hadn't got together and understood we had common concerns we wouldn't have been ten in opposition, it would have been three or four."