DEVELOPERS hoping to build 59 homes on the now disused Embsay Tannery site have been asked to think again by the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The controversial development - described as the biggest in the national park area for many years - has aroused considerable hostility in the village, but was recommended for approval by planning officers.

The scheme involves the demolition of the tannery and ancillary buildings and in its place the construction of a block of 28 flats and 31 houses, of which 10 would be earmarked for a housing association to allocate to families from the parish as "affordable housing".

Local woodland and mill dams would be preserved by a management company financed by an annual charge on the eventual householders.

The site is badly contaminated and would have to be tidied up and £98,000 would be allocated to Embsay School.

An independent assessment of the costs and profits accepted that the whole scheme was "on the margins of viability".

However, members of the authority expressed their misgivings over many aspects of the application including design, density and the number of houses set aside for affordable homes, but they stopped short of refusing the scheme.

Instead they decided to postpone a decision and ask for a "more robust" look at the financial costs of decontaminating the site and developing it, especially the possibility of tax credits for cleansing the site.

They also asked officers to raise with the developers the prospect of more houses to be set aside for affordable housing and reducing the height of the block of flats.

The application has been submitted by Burley Developments and the Heber Trust, which represents the Brooksbank family, owners of the site.

Officers will discuss members' comments with the applicants and report back to the authority.