Plans are being prepared to site a fish and chip restaurant in green belt land on the outskirts of Ilkley, it has been revealed.

But the proposal for the Coutances Way site has already met with a negative response from the chairman of the town's planning committee.

No details have been released yet about the scheme but a spokesman for the firm handling the application has confirmed that it is being prepared and will be submitted for approval within the next few weeks.

The company behind the scheme, The Wetherby Whaler, has been serving up fish and chips in Yorkshire for 36 years and already runs restaurants in Pudsey, Wakefield, York and Wetherby.

The future of the Cara-Cars and filling station site has been open to speculation since the failure of engineering giant N G Bailey to secure planning permission for an office development.

But the latest proposal has no more chance of success than its predecessor, according to Ilkley Parish Council Plans Committee Chairman Kate Brown.

Coun Brown spoke of her objection to the scheme after hearing that it was prepared for submission, and she stressed that the proposal would cause a lot of concern in the town.

"Personally I think I would be against it," she said. "The N G Bailey plan was refused, and I don't see that a fish and chip shop has any more merit to be built in the green belt than an office block.

"I think it is quite concerning and could set a precedent."

She said N G Bailey had a reputation for having attractively designed, well looked after buildings.

"If they had been refused it would not be right that something like this would be allowed to happen," she stressed.

She said many residents had already voiced concern after an article in the Gazette pinpointed a fish and chip restaurant as one of the possible future uses being considered for the site.

And she believes that concern is now likely to grow after confirmation from the agents Dacre, Son and Hartley that a planning application is in the process of being prepared.

Coun Brown said there was already a potential spot for a restaurant on the outskirts of the town at the former Little Chef site.

And she argued that such a development on the land at Coutances Way would not be suitable because of its impact on the Green belt and its visual intrusion of the surrounding area.

She stressed she did not object to the idea of a fish and chip restaurant per se, but was not happy with its proposed siting.

"I would want to see it located in an appropriate site that has either got an existing food use, or where it would not be an intrusion into the Green Belt."

The Ilkley Gazette understands that separate proposals have also been put forward for a car wash at the site of the former filling station on Coutances Way. Coun Brown said she believed there had previously been a car wash at the site.

Last year Bradford Council's Regulatory and Appeals Committee turned down N G Bailey's offices plan because it said the company had not been able to present 'very special circumstances' for the development on green belt land.