Campaigners have vowed to fight on even though Barton Farm, Winchester, was this week formally earmarked as the reserve site for 2,000 new homes.

City council planners have come under fire from residents after deciding on Friday to set land aside, north of the city centre and south of Well House Lane, for a major development area.

Protesters said they felt let down and dismayed following the meeting and dubbed the council "weak, nave and irresponsible".

But David Atwell, local plan committee vice-chairman, said the decision to pinpoint Barton Farm was the right one and his only regret was that it couldn't be built on immediately.

Around 60 people crammed into the Walton Room, at Winchester Guildhall, for the crucial all-day meeting. The MDA discussion was delayed by an hour - which angered protesters. Gavin Blackman, chairman of the Save Barton Farm group, was threatened with expulsion from the meeting when he refused to sit down after only being allowed to read half his speech.

In it, he hit out at councillors who, he said, were being "railroaded" by officers and by Hampshire County Council.

"Other local authorities such as Eastleigh and Test Valley Borough Councils have had the foresight and courage to challenge the Structure Plan, to question the housing numbers foisted upon them by the county council, and to determine for themselves how and where the housing is to be provided," he said.

"I could not believe how much work had already been done by your planning officers on a site that I thought was as yet undecided. They might just as well pick up a trowel and lay the bricks themselves on Barton Farm."

Mr Blackman said afterwards of the planners that he was "disappointed but not surprised by their lack of due deference to what people were saying".

Only two councillors, Jacqueline Porter and Graham Hutton, voted to cut references to Barton Farm out of the local plan. Mr Hutton, who represents Kings Worthy, said: "Before passing these resolutions we should be privy to all the facts. This is asking a turkey to vote for Christmas without explaining that it's top of the menu."

He also said the council would be nave to trust the joint advisory panel not to trigger Winchester's reserve site before others.

Maurice Charrett, from Winchester Residents' Association, added: "I think the city council has been weak and has failed to look at Winchester's incredibly unique and important landscape setting."

Geoff Bruty, of Manningford Close, Winchester, said after the meeting: "I personally felt really let down. The committee members seemed to be ill-informed and they seemed to be led by officers, who were unwilling to move from their entrenched position."

But Mr Atwell stood up to the critics and defended the committee: "The right decision was made, I am quite clear about that," he said. "I thought the debate was very thorough but I regret that the trigger mechanism isn't housing need. If it was, Barton Farm would need to be built on now."

He hit back at protesters, saying he found it "depressing" that they wanted to rush through the Friarsgate-Broadway discussion at the meeting to get on to Barton Farm.

The revised draft of the local plan is due for release at the end of the month. It will come before the full council on February 12th, where the Save Barton Farm group will have its final say before the public inquiry, expected in May, 2004.

Mr Blackman added: "I came away from Friday's meeting a bit down but having spoken to people, we're just going to go away, do lots of hard work and come back with a bang."