GREEN Belt land designed to protect Worcester from merging with Droitwich is to be transformed into a business park.

The Conservative group on Worcester City Council is pressing ahead with plans for a "low-density, low-rise scientific and technology park" at Blackpole.

The development would be built south of the A449 northern link road - in a 35-acre wedge of Green Belt.

"It would be a 21st Century industrial estate, part of a 'technology corridor' stretching from the University of Birmingham to Malvern," said the chairman of the committee, Coun Stephen Inman.

The proposals could deter planning appeals by developers angry at being denied the chance to expand elsewhere in Worcester, Coun Inman believed.

Dr Malcolm Nixon, chairman of the Claines Green Belt Association, was "horrified".

"This plan is half-baked and dangerous," he said today.

"The Conservatives have bleated for years about excessive development, but all that's happened now is that we've had a change of parties, not of thinking.

"This is asking for political trouble. We all know what happened to Labour because the party didn't listen to the people of Worcester."

The scheme, unveiled at last night's meeting of the technical services committee, caught Labour members off-guard.

They asked for a halt to the meeting, before branding the suggestions a "smokescreen".

They claimed that in reality, the Conservatives expected the Government to bar them from digging up Green Belt land.

"Your group says it is against building on greenfield sites, yet you advocate sacrificing the Green Belt," said Coun Geoff Williams.

"It's a con."

Other councillors warned that Barbourne Brook crossed the land and the site was liable to flood.

They also said Claines Residents' Association had collected a 630-name petition during last year's consultation, urging the council not to touch the Green Belt.

Conservative members voted for the development, which was opposed by the Labour councillors. When the two Independents - Mike Layland and Margaret Layland - abstained, Coun Inman used his casting vote to approve the proposals.