FIVE parish councillors have resigned in disgust at a Government minister overriding their rejection of a housing development which they say threatens the very future of their village.

Half of Newick Parish Council has resigned after communities secretary Sajid Javid overturned their rejection of plans for 50 homes on a farm site.

Former parish council vice-chairman Chris Armitage, who resigned along with chairman Nick Berryman, finance chairman Chris Jago and planning committee members Cathy Wickens and Mel Thew, warned the decision could open the floodgates to other developers to build in the village.

Plans for the homes at Mitchelswoods Farm in Allington Road were rejected by the parish council in October 2014 and Lewes District Council in February 2015 because the proposed site was not included in the village's fledgling neighbourhood plan.

The neighbourhood plan, which agreed to 100 new homes over the next 20 years in a village of only 2,000 residents, was formally adopted after two years' work last summer when 89 per cent of voters backed the proposal.

Applicants appealed the decision and after a public inquiry in February, the application was called in by the secretary of state on the insistence of Lewes MP Maria Caulfield.

In a two pronged legal challenge, developers also took the village neighbourhood plan to the High Court where they lost and villagers are now awaiting a Court of Appeal ruling.

Parish councillors took the decision to resign after learning the Planning Inspector and Mr Javid had ruled against them claiming that the neighbourhood plan did not give grounds to refuse acceptable planning applications on other sites, that the development would not lead to the merging of Chailey and Newick and disagreeing with claims the land to be built upon was "highly valued".

Mr Armitage said: "The decision has left us dismayed and disillusioned.

"Neighbourhood Plans were introduced for a community to have their say on how they wanted their village to grow.

"The 89 per cent of the village who voted for this, the secretary of state has said we're going to ignore that.

"Other developers will look to take advantage of this decision, we could see 300 houses which would kill the village.

"We thought long and hard about whether we were leaving the villagers in the lurch but we've decided to form a working group to get people behind us and understand what is going on."