RETIRED school cook Kate Tombs was delighted when she bought her dream home, backing onto open fields in Gorleston.

She had hoped to see out the rest of her days at the peaceful Burgh Road retreat, near to her grandchildren. So the 57-year-old was horrified when a council truck pulled up and workers began unloading 'eyesore' concrete blocks - pinning garden gates shut and obstructing views.

And now she has learned the blocks are to 'secure the site' which county council bosses have earmarked for a 110-home housing development.

'We wanted a nice peaceful life near our grandchildren,' said Mrs Tombs. 'I don't want this eyesore at the bottom of the garden. I wish they'd had the decency to say what they're doing.'

She said no development plans showed up on searches when she bought the house five months ago, and the first she knew of it was when council workers were in the field - near to Wroughton Junior School - behind her garden gate.

'I saw them snooping through the gate,' she added. 'They said they were from Norfolk County Council and nobody was supposed to have access. I said I wasn't aware of that.'

She and husband John, a retired printer, had already spent many hours and more than �3,000 clearing conifers and bushes, installing trellis to make the most of the field view, and a gate to access it. But they have been told they can no longer go on the field - historically used by dog walkers - and neighbours' gates have already been blocked with concrete cubes one metre square. She waits for the day a block is dumped by her gate.

A spokesman for the county council said workers are 'making the site safe and secure' after outline planning permission was granted for a 110 home development.

They added: 'Great Yarmouth Borough Council has granted planning permission for 110 dwellings to be built on the former Claydon High School site on Beccles Road, Gorleston.

'The land is owned by Norfolk County Council.'

the county council won outline permission on June 15 this year, after the application was first submitted in 2005.