A Twitter account set up to block a Haworth housing estate has caused confusion after advocating concreting over the village’s green fields.

‘Save Haworth’ appeared on the social networking site in October, shortly after Bradford businessman Perves Abbas announced plans to build 320 homes on Weavers Hill.

Seemingly opposing the plans, its tweets rallied objectors and posted stories from the Keighley News that included objections from groups such as the Bronte Society and Haworth Parish Church.

It quickly became one of the biggest voices of objection, despite remaining faceless.

But last week the poster appeared to have had a change of heart, with tweets offering support for the scheme and claiming Haworth needed more houses and fewer green spaces. Objectors have called the apparent U-turn “sinister”.

Mr Abbas said last month he was days away from submitting a planning application for 120 houses on the field. If approved, they would be followed by a further 200 houses.

Save Haworth tweeted: “Applica-tion for 320 houses on Weavers Hill should be granted. Greenfields need to be turned into housing estates.”

Another urged people to back Mr Abbas’s plans, to which the businessman replied: “Thanks for your support.”

Shortly after these posts, opponents went online to get to try and get to the bottom of the mystery, but the account was deleted, leaving residents and the applicant himself scratching their heads.

Opponent Tim Curtis said: “I guess it’s been hacked. Very sinister if so.”

When asked if he knew who was behind the tweets, Mr Abbas said: “I don’t know who it was. I was surprised myself. They were against the plans and now they support it. I was astonished.”

Christine Went, of the Bronte Society, said: “When it was originally brought to my attention, I thought someone must have hacked into the account, but if it had been it’s likely whoever was behind it would have explained things by now.

“Something really strange is going on around here.”

Mr Abbas has also revealed the first stage of his housing plan will be reduced from the 120 houses originally planned to fewer than 100. This change in scale was behind the delay in officially submitting it, but he says an application is imminent.