A FURIOUS row has erupted over claims that a New Forest town could be blighted by a scheme that resembles a Nazi concentration camp.

District council leader Simon Hayes has clashed with a fellow Tory over a factory that closed last year with the loss of 500 jobs.

Council planning chiefs have drawn up a blueprint for firms interested in redeveloping the former Webbs Country Foods site in Bridge Street, Lymington.

The document was discussed at a meeting yesterday of the authority's ruling Cabinet.

Councillor Kevin Ault said the council and the landowner's agent were divided over how much of the riverside site should be used for housing.

He claimed the row looked set to result in the "inevitable compromise" that would please no one.

"This is a system that produces perhaps the worst development in Europe - bad, unimaginative design and nondescript architecture.

"How many times have we found ourselves having to accept uniform, featureless development little better than concentration camps, with machine gun towers for variety?

"Schemes like that are nothing more than monuments to compromise."

His remarks resulted in an instant rebuke from Cllr Hayes who, like Cllr Ault, is a Tory member for Lymington.

Cllr Hayes said: "You have been controversial on this from the start. You have fed the press with fears and you are doing so again today.

"We all agree that this is a prominent site, we all agree that it's an enormous opportunity and we all want to achieve something special for Lymington.

"It's ridiculous to talk about concentration camp towers."

Cllr Hayes defended the new development brief, saying it would give the council the flexibility it needed to achieve a first-rate scheme.

But Cllr Ault attacked the decision to include a housing figure of 25 per cent, saying it would destroy the council's bargaining position.