Villagers in Rossington near Doncaster were asked: "Do you believe it is in the best interests of the Rossington community to encourage extra housing on the greenfield sites around or within our village?"

A total of 898 people said "no" and just 31 said yes, although the turnout was low at 9.6 per cent.

Members of the parish council said the vote showed the strength of local opinion against the proposed development, which would see 5,000 new homes built near the former pit site. The project is being promoted by site owner UK Coal.

Councillor Jackie Clark, an independent who represents Rossington on Doncaster Council, said the result was "marvellous news".

He added: "People from UK Coal and all the other people involved have been trying to hoodwink people and tell them this would be a good thing. So we took it to the public and had a democratic vote."

Parish council chairman Terry Wilde described the result as "incredible" and added: "Developers have been saying there is 80 per cent support for the eco-town but this shows they are plain wrong."

However, a spokesman for UK Coal said the poll that was carried out wasn't relevant because it referred to building homes on greenfield land.

When the plans were revised earlier this week, proposals to build up to 15,000 new homes on both greenfield and brownfield land were shelved and the scheme was downsized to involve building 5,000 homes solely on the former pit site.

The UK Coal spokesman added: "The poll was an exercise of democracy in action, as the leaflet put it, but in terms of giving an opinion on a proposal it really was out of date.

"In terms of the real plan, the poll was an irrelevance."

The Government is still looking for a suitable site for an eco-town in the Leeds City Region, and a final decision on up to 10 potential sites will be made early next year.