Ulverston Town Council is to press planners not to let people move in to a new housing estate until work at a junction condemned as dangerous is finished.

Tough-talking councillors said building work and house sales should stop at the 104-home Lund Farm development at North Lonsdale Terrace until there was a decent junction between the terrace and the A590.

Developers Persimmon Homes were due to pay for a roundabout as a condition of its planning consent for the new estate. In another condition, it was agreed that homes should only be occupied when the road works were done.

But now Persimmon has come back to planning authority South Lakeland District Council to change the condition in favour of a third access lane on North Lonsdale Terrace instead.

Persimmon announced earlier this month that it had discovered there was now not enough room to fit in a roundabout on Cumbria County Council land. At the same time, the Highways Agency said it had carried out a fresh safety audit and ruled that a roundabout was "not the best answer" to cope with the extra cars because it would "impede traffic flow and make it more difficult for pedestrians and cyclists."

But Ulverston town councillors decided at their Monday meeting that Persimmon's new road plan was unacceptable.

"If ever there was a site that needed a roundabout it is this site and it isn't getting it," complained Coun Phil Lister. "Simply widening the carriageway is utterly inadequate. If Persimmon allow people to move in to those homes in January when there is no sign of the road work being started let alone agreed then Persimmon are behaving immorally and the Highways Agency are simply making fun of us."

Coun Stan Lewis warned that the junction risked becoming "Greenodd number two" - another controversial A590 junction where the Highways Agency dropped a planned roundabout and which has since been the scene of a number of accidents.

"The villain of the piece" was the Highways Agency, added Coun Margaret Hornby, who said they "must be held to account".

Meanwhile, Coun Colin Hodsgon argued that a roundabout was not necessarily the answer - traffic lights would help the problem as well but the widening plan on the table from Persimmon was certainly not good enough.

Councillors unanimously agreed to back a proposal from Coun Lister, telling SLDC the traffic management plan was not up to the task and to halt the development.

"SLDC has to look to its enforcement powers to prevent the sale of any home and stop the building work going ahead until this matter is sorted out because this decision will affect generations of Furness people."