NORTH Yorkshire Council says a decision on the Hellifield holiday lodge scheme is being held up by a legal issue.

Aire Valley Park Ltd has ambitious plans to build 99 holiday lodges on land to the east of Waterside Lane in Hellifield which it says will create 24 full-time jobs and provide “much-needed” accommodation for tourists visiting the Dales.

But the proposals on wetlands that are known locally as the “flashes” have proved controversial.

In March 2019 a larger plan for up to 300 lodges, a swimming pool and hotel was refused by Craven District Council.

With villagers in Hellifield eagerly awaiting a decision on the latest proposals, Conservative councillor for Bentham and Ingleton David Ireton asked a council planning officer at a meeting on Tuesday of the Skipton and Ripon Area Constituency Planning Committee in Ripon why it had not been brought to committee yet—over three years since the new plans were submitted.

Craven District Council was expected to make a decision on the plans but it was not ready in time before the authority was abolished on March 31.

Planning manager Neville Watson said the new council was still deciding if the application should be subject to an environmental impact assessment.

Mr Watson said six months ago, the council enlisted the help of an external solicitor to help it decide if the assessment was required but it had still not received a firm answer.

Mr Watson said: “If the lawyer we’ve contacted gives advice that there is one needed then that will have to be carried out. If the conclusion is that it doesn’t, it will come forward as soon as we possibly can. I know it’s high priority and you want to see it put to bed.”

But the officer’s response frustrated Cllr Ireton, who queried why it has taken over six months to receive an answer from the solicitor.

He said: “We’re a big organisation, why don’t we have someone in our own legal team who can answer that? Why can’t the legal advisor say — yes its needed, or no it’s not.”

In addition to the Hellifield Flashes application, it had been hoped that an application to build homes at the Old Saw Mill, Marton Road, Gargrave, would also be dealt with before the end of the district council.

The application, which was verified by the then council in July, last year, seeks to remove 25 permanent residential caravans at the site and build 12 new homes. It also seeks the conversion of the existing sawmill building on the site to two apartments.