GARGRAVE residents who say farm traffic from a 'mega dairy' is putting pedestrians at risk have won a stay of execution over a planned housing development.

Councillors after listening to objectors, the parish council and the ward councillor, yesterday (Monday) chose to defer a decision on plans to build 38 new homes on a greenfield site just outside the built-up limits of the village off Marton Road.

Going against the recommendation of its planning manager, the Skipton and Ripon Planning Committee deferred a decision for further discussion with the highways authority to a future meeting, to be confirmed.

The same committee went against officer recommendation for a second time and instead of refusing a scheme to build homes on the Old Sawmill riverside site currently used for residential caravans and further out of the village, but on the same road, said they were minded to approve it.

That decision will now be subject to final approval by the secretary of state as the development, involving 12 new homes and the conversion of the existing sawmill into two apartments was opposed by the Environment Agency because of some of the houses being at high risk of flooding.

Monday's meeting of North Yorkshire Council's Skipton and Ripon planning meeting in Skipton heard strong objections to RN Wooler and Co's plan to build 38 homes on a greenfield site outside but next to the built up limits of the village.

The site is allocated for housing in both the Craven Local Plan and the Gargrave Neighbourhood Plan, but objectors say a lack of footpath on Marton Road means pedestrians will be put at risk. A previous application for a slightly smaller number of houses on the site was refused by the former Craven District Council in January last year on grounds of density and mix of housing, design and insufficient information on flooding and drainage - all of which had been addressed in the new scheme, heard the meeting.

Parish council chair Gregory Butt said since the Craven Local Plan and the Gargrave Neighbourhood Plan were adopted, a 'mega dairy' had been built at Bank Newton which has led to an increase in farm traffic on Marton Road. He also argued that there was no material difference to the earlier refused application. The parish council was however in favour of houses being built at the Old Sawmill because it was a brownfield site, and it had never flooded in living memory.

Ward councillor Simon Myers said people in Gargrave could not be described as NIMBYs as the village had been the first to agree its Neighbourhood Plan, but the situation for Marton Road had changed since the building of the intensive dairy at Bank Newton had resulted in a big increase in vehicles through the village. The highways authority needed to work with residents he said.

But planning manager Neville Watson questioned how it could be argued that the building of 38 more homes warranted a footpath when the highways authority considered one was not needed currently. He further pointed out it would need owners of the properties along the road to agree to selling off part of their land to build a footpath, and that there were other sites with proposed or existing houses which were similarly without footpaths.

Skipton councillor Robert Heseltine said the reasons why the previous plan for the site had been refused had been overcome and there were no valid reasons why it should not now be approved.