A campaign to create a third crossing over Lowestoft's Lake Lothing was backed by more than 200 people at a public meeting tonight in the town.

The meeting at the Hotel Victoria was set up by businessman Peter Colby, who has drawn up plans to build a tidal barrage with a road crossing in an effort to make the town a better destination for motorists.

And as Mr Colby, who runs Sprowston-based Peter Colby Commercials, argued the benefits of his £30m crossing plans and also his £2.4m idea to create hundreds of jobs on the former Sanyo factory, he lashed out at Waveney District Council.

He said that a council area action plan for large parts of the town to create new set zones for homes and employment sites, such as hundreds of homes on the former Sanyo site and an energy park, would not work for the benefit of the town and was holding back his plans as it does not support a third crossing.

He also said a total of £10m of taxpayers' money had been spent on the action plan, which runs until 2026 and wants to regenerate waterfront areas, such as the former Brooke Marine site, by building homes there,

At the end of the meeting Mr Colby told the large crowd: 'I believe Lowestoft deserves better than that (the action plan).'

The meeting was chaired by Bob Blizzard, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Waveney.

He said: 'If we ended up with a plan without a crossing, it does not seem right to me.'

One member of the public had one answer to the district council's action plan by saying: 'We have got to flush the whole thing down the loo.'

Two votes at the end of the night saw not one person vote against a call for a third crossing and no one voted in favour of a motion saying the area action plan was a good idea.