The head of a development firm working on the controversial Long Marston "eco-town" scheme said he sympathises with hundreds of protesters opposing the plans.

St Modwen chairman Anthony Glossop said he sympathised with the protesters, saying: "If I was sitting there I would be saying 'why would I want another small town down there, what's in it for me?'"

And he added he believed that the Government's approach to building the new carbon-neutral communities had not taken into account the pressures on local services, making people justifiably angry.

"What Gordon Brown proposed is about having 10 new settlements round the country with at least one in each region," he said.

"The weakness in the Government's strategy is that they are saying these eco-towns should be built in addition to what there is already planned for the area.

"I heard one councillor on the radio say 'we are already being asked to take 5,000 houses, this is more than we can stand'.

"If the Government had been slightly smarter then the eco-towns could have been seen as something that will alleviate problems in these areas.

"People are concerned about the bad impacts of the development, and they are cynical, and who can blame them?"

Two weeks ago about 300 protesters marched against the plans to build the eco-town near their homes around the village of Long Marston.

They say the plans - which would see 6,000 new homes build on a former Ministry of Defence site - would put too much pressure on local services, and require tens of millions of pounds for new roads, schools and doctors.

The Long Marston site is one of dozens put forward as possible locations for what the Government says will be a new generation of environmentally-friendly housing developments.

Other potential sites that have drawn protests include Throckmorton, in Worcestershire; Grovewood in South Derbyshire and Stoughton in Leicestershire.

Mike Brain, local councillor for Quinton at Stratford District Council - which includes Long Marston, said people in the area surrounding the village were angry at the "disgraceful" lack of consultation with locals over the project.

He said: "I like to see that he sympathises with us, and rightly so. I'm surprised but also not surprised. It was absolutely disgraceful that they should treat us in this way.

"This town would be almost the same size as Stratford again. It's just the wrong place to put this type of development. We have no real unemployment here, and we have no real housing need. people would have to be "They should be close to or connected to already established large settlements."

Mr Glossop said that while he sympathised with the protesters, if the Government decided to choose Long Marston as an eco-town site, they should try to see the up side of it.

"If they are going to have the impact of the eco-town on top of normal development, I can see their argument," he said.

"But it deserves a hearing. If they are going to exist then Long Marston is as good as they are going to have. We are building roads and we will open up a railway station. If we put it in with today's infrastructure we would deserve to go down in flames."

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government defended the eco-town plans, saying: "We desperately need more homes and we need to act to tackle climate change. Eco-towns will build low carbon design into communities, offering low-cost, green homes.

"We have had more than 50 bids from areas who want to become eco-towns. We are applying tough tests to these bids - some appear to be good, others unsuitable. We will publish our shortlist of the best proposals in the coming weeks.

"There will be plenty of opportunity for local people to have their say on the proposals before final decisions are taken."