The “right-wing” backlash against 15 and 20-minute neighbourhoods is “dangerous”, a senior Liberal Democrat in West Yorkshire has said.

Stewart Golton, leader of the Lib Dem group on Leeds City Council, said supporters of the concept needed to be “as enthusiastic as possible” to counter the rhetoric.

Leeds is one of many town and cities across the UK to have adopted a strategy of designing 15 or 20-minute neighbourhoods.

The idea is geared towards ensuring people can walk to all of the public places and services they need within a short period of time.

Supporters hope the plans will cut carbon emissions and improve air quality and social cohesion. Critics have previously suggested the idea may be unworkable in places like Leeds, because of a lack of infrastructure in its outer rural areas and because public transport is not reliable enough for people to ditch their cars.

But such schemes have come under sustained attack over recent weeks, with one Conservative MP in South Yorkshire branding it a “socialist concept”.

Some conspiracy theorists have falsely claimed, meanwhile, that the government wants to permanently confine people to the neighbourhoods in which they live.

Speaking at a council meeting on Wednesday, Councillor Golton said: “This has been something that’s become quite controversial recently.

“Who’d have thought that the concept of living in a community where you can get to the shop, the doctors’, the dentist and the bus stop within 20 minutes would be something really controversial, and that some people on the right would think it an infringement on their human rights?”

Councillor Golton said 20-minute neighbourhoods would ensure the focus on transport schemes would shift away from Leeds city centre and into the suburbs, “where most of us actually live”.

He added: “It’s something I do quite passionately believe in and I think the rearguard action we’re seeing from some on the right at the moment is really quite dangerous.

“We need to be as enthusiastic as possible to counter it.”