WYCOMBE District council has defended its decision to throw out an affordable homes plan for Marlow, despite claims that developers were misled.

Maidenhead and District Housing Association (MDHA) wanted to build 50 affordable houses and flats on land next to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, off Fieldhouse Lane.

But the application was rejected on June 9 without warning from the council.

It said that the location was remote from the town centre and had poor transport links which could result in the "creation of a ghetto".

The wording angered interested parties, including developers, who said the council was being unfair to key workers who would ultimately live there.

They hoped that this would include nurses, teachers and firemen for the new fire station set to open in the town shortly.

But the council has defended its decision and said that the word "ghetto" was purely in reference to the location of the site and not any attempt to label potential residents.

A spokesman said: "The reference came from views expressed by a specialist consultee, and was not part of the council's reasons for refusal.

"In any event, the word had been used, in this instance quite properly, to describe the very isolated nature of the site, remote from the town and its facilities."

Cllr Tony Dunn, consultant for landowners Pelhamcrest, who entered into an agreement with MDHA, said the council should have chosen their words more carefully.

He said: "It is isolated, there is no doubt about that, but the people who would be occupying these homes would be shift workers and would have their own transport."

Cllr Dunn claimed that developers had been promised a meeting with the council before the decision was made, to discuss a flood report but the rejection was made a day before the report had even been completed.

A council spokesman said that while some negotiations would have been possible, the application was fundamentally flawed because it was based in green belt land.

Cllr Pamela Priestly, chairman for Development Control, added that simply because it was an affordable homes plan didn't mean the application should go ahead.

She said: "The whole district has housing needs. But I don't think this particular site, in policy terms, was the right site."

European cross-country champion Hayley Yelling told the Free Press of her disappointment with the council's decision. The teacher said without affordable housing she will be unable to move to the town.