MOVES are afoot to try and keep Bramhope's main public car park in the hands of the village for posterity.

The development follows last week's decision by Leeds planners to throw out a fiercely-opposed outline application by pub chain the Spirit Group to build on the Old Lane site.

That news broke just in time for the Wharfedale & Airedale Observer to carry the decision, and this week villagers have spoken of their joy and relief.

Although owned by Spirit, which also owns the adjacent Fox and Hounds inn and parking area, the car park has been used as a public amenity for decades. Bramhope's public toilets also sit on the land.

In summing up its reasons for refusing permission for a development, the Planning department seemed to have listened to the 450 villagers who objected.

Officers concluded that: "The proposed site is a well-used local facility within the village. In the opinion of the Local Planning Authority, the loss of the car park with ancillary facilities would lead to alternative parking solutions on-street.

"Due to the narrow footways and road widths it is considered that this would cause detriment to highway safety and capacity and to general amenity (contrary to policies embodied in the Leeds Unitary Development Plan)."

Parish Council Chairman Councillor Colin Robertson is now liaising with the pub chain to see if a deal can be struck to keep the car park for villagers for generations to come.

Coun Robertson said: "We are delighted with the decision particularly as it picks up on the principle that the village would have major problems without the car park.

"The main thing is the reasons they have given for refusal. We were pleasantly surprised that they have gone to the principles of it, that the village could not do without the amenity and that it would cause terrific traffic problems.

"There are times when there may be up to 100 cars there coming for various events, and they'd just park on the lane and in The Cross area, which is bad enough already, if we lost this.

"We are very grateful for the terrific amount of support shown by people and the amount of letters of objection that were sent in - around 450 individual letters which represents one household in four from the area.

"And a petition organised by the Robert Craven Memorial Hall also attracted a few hundred signatures I can confirm that we are in discussions with Spirit's agents as to whether the car park can be brought under the parish council's control. These are at an early stage."

Parish Deputy Chairman Councillor Geoff Mills, meanwhile, believes the planning result has vindicated the role of the parish council.

He said: "This is excellent news and the fact it's been kicked out at such a very early stage in the process would tend to suggest that the (applicant's) case was quite weak. That may mean they're unlikely to submit further applications down the line.

"There has been a fantastic response from the village to object against these plans in such numbers and if that's influenced the planners that's great, it's evidence of common sense and democracy in action.

"People often ask 'what exactly does the parish council do?' and I think this is a good example of what we can do, and has illustrated how useful we can be."

The parish council helped rally the campaign against the proposals, and distributed leaflets to homes across Bramhope advising people on how they could object.