A group of residents have accused a council of "gross failure" over its response to the development of an unauthorised traveller site in their village.

Work began on the four-acre (1.6-ha) field in Willows Green, near Felsted, Essex, in May and a retrospective planning application for the site was submitted to Uttlesford District Council on Monday.

About 100 people from Willows Green staged a protest outside the authority's building on Thursday over why it had not been able to prevent the development.

The council issued a temporary "stop notice" on 6 May after the field was concreted over and said on Thursday it was "doing everything we can".

Anthony Mongan, who submitted the retrospective planning application, said the application would help meet a "significant" unmet need for traveller sites.

His proposal included 12 pitches for mobile homes as well as touring caravans and dayroom buildings, and would "not materially alter the character or balance of the local community", it claimed.

After issuing the initial stop notice, the council was granted a High Court injunction to prevent further development at the site.

"When I had an extension, I had to get permission," said campaigner and Willow Green resident Tracy Williams.

"My problem isn't with the travelling community, it is with the permissions – abide by laws, stick to the rules and do it the right way."

She said she felt let down by the council, adding: "The generator noise has been awful all summer - residents can't have windows open due to noise.

"A whole field was destroyed and Uttlesford District Council was nowhere to be seen," she said.

When speaking before the council's Scrutiny Committee on Thursday evening, resident Andrew Madders said the situation "erodes confidence in planning enforcement".

"Residents and representatives warned Uttlesford council months in advance about similar cases. Yet the development went ahead.

"When the council was provided with information that a significant and potentially irreversible development was imminent – did it take enough action?"

He also compared the situation to a similar case in Sawbridgeworth, but John Evans, a councillor and portfolio holder for planning, explained that the two were "very different".

"The facts [at Sawbridgeworth] were extreme. They were very different to the facts present at Willows Green on the first weekend in May," he said.

Dean Hermitage, the council's director of planning, said lawyers had described the outcome at Sawbridgeworth as "vanishingly rare".

"We are doing everything we can, we have counsel instructed," he added.

Petrina Lees, the council's leader, told protesters: "We are not people that come out, smile nicely and go back in and ignore this.

"We have heard, we have listened and we will do."

Michael Mongan, who was also part of the application for retrospective planning permission for the site, said in a statement: "We believe the proper planning process should be allowed to take its course.

"The application should be considered and decided by the planning committee on the relevant planning, safety and safeguarding matters, rather than being decided through local pressure or protest."

Mongan added: "This is not about attacking or criticising the local community. It is about protecting the privacy, safety and wellbeing of our families and children."

Sherrie Smith, the chief executive of the group, Gypsies and Travellers Essex, also attended the protest and addressed the demonstrators.

She explained that councils had consistently failed to provide enough sites for travellers, forcing communities to take more drastic measures.

She said if the travellers who own the land had requested planning permission beforehand, "planning notices would have gone around Willow Green and the local villages and there would have been numerous people appealing against it".

"If you put it in retrospectively, it's actually determined more fairly. The application will be considered on its merits and not on public demonstrations or public anger," she said.

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