Campaigners from Menston have spoken of their disappointment that the fight to stop hundreds of homes built on fields appears to be over.

Bradford Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee met yesterday to discuss three applications that would see 310 houses built on land off Bingley Road and at Derry Hill.

The heated meeting, which lasted five hours, saw claims the houses could lead to raw sewage flowing onto the village’s streets. Despite contrasting claims over how the houses would effect the village, the committee approved it by four to three.

One of the applications, for 135 houses on fields off Bingley Road, was scheduled to go to a planning appeal on Tuesday, but applicants Taylor Wimpey are now expected to pull the appeal after yesterday’s result. A duplicate application for the same site, and one for 173 houses on fields at Derry Hill, by Barratt Homes, had already been approved in 2012. But objectors, including the Menston Action Group, claimed the Council was unlawful in approving them. They said the area is already a flood risk, and building houses there could cause worse problems.

The authority decided it would be “prudent” to look at the applications again after MAG threatened legal action.

During the meeting, members were shown videos of a drain overflowing, spewing raw sewage, and water flowing down the application site after heavy rainfall in September.

Despite this, Bradford Council’s drainage officers, the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water had no objections to the housing plans, and said experts believed drainage works would reduce flood risks.

Members were annoyed that a flooding report had been prepared for next week’s appeal but not made available to the committee. Bradford Mayor Coun Dale Smith, also a ward councillor for Wharfedale, spoke out against the plans, saying: “The smoke and mirrors we’ve seen today only re-enforces my frustration with this. There have been documents not passed to committee members, documents referred to but not produced – no chance of questioning alleged facts.”

The applicants were being heckled so badly that chairman Coun David Warburton said: “Keep your comments to yourself or take them outside.”

Coun Roger L’Amie hit out at the differing claims made by the council, applicants and objectors over the flood risks, adding: “We are going through the intellectual version of schoolyard banter – ‘my expert is better than your expert.’”

Following four hours of evidence and representations, the councillors went on a site visit, after which they approved all three applications to shouts of “disgusting” from objectors.

Alan Elsegood, chairman of the Menston Community Association, said: “I’m shocked.

“We have fought this as strongly as any community could.”