The name of Dartmouth's £80m new town expansion needs to be dumped before it ends up causing a major community split.

The complex of 400 new homes, employment units and a community hub which could include shops, a medical practice and even a new town hospital is due to be built across 80 acres of land on the western edge of Dartmouth.

Developer Millwood Homes, which is consulting over a masterplan for the development, has given it the name West Dartmouth.

But some councillors fear the name will reinforce the split that exists between Dartmouth's 'lower town' and the Townstal area.

County and district councillor Jonathan Hawkins told a town council meeting called to debate the development project: 'I don't think we should call it West Dartmouth. We should just call it Dartmouth.

'If we have too many different sections of the town, we are going to get broken up. It is dangerous to keep on coming up with new names for different sections of the same community.

'We have got to ensure that the new development is part of Dartmouth and Townstal. We can't have a segregation over this.'

And town councillor Steve Smith added:' We need to keep away from the idea of calling this West Dartmouth.'

Although the 80 acre site is on the edge of Dartmouth, the bulk of the development will be in the parish of Stoke Fleming.

Dartmouth councillors have talked about having the boundary shifted so that all the new homes – and a share of the council tax – would come to Dartmouth rather that Stoke Fleming because Dartmouth will supply facilities and infrastructure for the people living in he new homes.

Stoke Fleming parish councillors had been invited to the Guildhall meeting to debate the project.

Stoke Fleming parish councillor Katie Franks told town councillors: 'We are concerned about the precept angle on this because most of this development will be in Stoke Fleming. We need to talk about this.'

She also said there were concerns about moving the park and ride site to just beyond Venn Lane and the impact of the new homes on the lane – which acts as a gateway to Stoke Fleming.

'Those are the main issues,' she added.