Leading businessman Sir John Banham has joined forces with countryside campaigners to challenge developments alleged to be inappropriate.

The former head of the Confederation of British Industry, who was raised and lives in Cornwall, has given the intellectual property rights associated with a High Court victory to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE).

Last year, plans to build a house and barn in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the village of Treen, West Cornwall, were overturned following his crusade.

As well as allowing CPRE members to use his legal arguments, which cost in the region of £100,000, Sir John has agreed to become patron of the Cornish branch of the campaign organisation.

Speaking to the Western Morning News for the Saturday Interview, the former chairman of Whitbread said he was "horrified" by the number of people who came forward with similar objections.

He said: "I am the chairman of a FTSE 100 company (chemicals company Johnson Matthey), not running a local planning advisory service. What I can do is help the CPRE do it."

Sir John has called for a root and branch review of the planning system, arguing potential investors in affordable homes will be turned off if it resembles something from a "banana republic".

He believes the Cornish countryside is "plainly" under threat.

"All you have to do is drive round the coastline of West Cornwall to see how it's been ruined," he said.