Owners of a Bradford-based farm shop business have overcome opposition from a retail consultant to win approval for a new £3 million store that will create 60 jobs.

The Keelham Farm shop is to be built on the outskirts of Skipton next to the Gargrave Road roundabout.

The decision by councillors to back the development was described as ‘finely balanced’.

The ‘modernistic’ new store will be built on the site of the former Nicholas Smith’s garage and a pair of semi-detached houses and is due to open next year. It will include a shop, cafe, playbarn, croft with live animals, and parking for 127 cars.

The planning committee, which approved the application, heard an independent retail consultant had concluded there was likely to be a “significantly adverse” impact on the vitality and viability of Skipton’s town centre.

Martin Tonks, employed by Craven Council to help officers form a recommendation and consider evidence from Keelham Farm, advised that the application be refused.

His report said that at four times the size of the original Keelham farm shop in Thornton, Bradford, the Skipton scheme was probably larger than needed and there were potentially better sites in the town centre.

He believed it would compete directly with town centre butchers and independents and there would be a cumulative impact arising from a proposed new store at the South Skipton Business Park and the new Aldi in Keighley Road.

Ian Swain, the council’s development control manager, told councillors it was a finely balanced decision.

The new shop will sell meat and vegetables, sourced from hundreds of local farmers and businesses, and will have a bakery and delicatessen.

There will also be a single 15 metre high wind turbine and the building will feature photovoltaic panels and green “sedum” roof.

Councillors heard the scheme had been largely welcomed by residents and by Skipton Town Council, although with some reservations about possible access problems. Coun Robert Heseltine (Ind) said there had been “significant support” for a farm shop, but pointed out, in reality, it was virtually all retail supermarket.

Keelham farm co-owner Victoria Robertshaw welcomed the decision and said the business would open in the autumn of 2014.

“We knew Skipton could be the perfect location for our second venture as the whole area is rooted in values that chime with our own commitment to supporting the rural farming community,” she said.