A PARTIALLY sighted 78-year-old woman who claimed that a tree outside her home was blocking light from her sitting room has been refused permission to pull it down.

The woman on Broughton Mews, Skipton, asked Craven planners to overturn a tree preservation order to allow her to get the silver birch chopped down.

She said the tree was blocking the light into her room to the extent where she either had to have the light on or sit in her bedroom.

But planning enforcement officer Ted Gill said the trees were there long before the bungalows and had been planted to shield the railway sidings from the houses.

Coun Paul English, her ward representative, said: "It is a beautiful healthy tree and I suggest if there is difficulty with the lighting this is not the way forward. We would be losing a beautiful tree for the benefit of one person."

He added that this would set a precedent for other people to try to get trees chopped down and that it must stay.

Coun David Ireton said he was sympathetic to the resident but he did not think the fact she was partially sighted was a reason to chop down the tree.

Skipton Town Council also objected to removing the tree. They said the trees on the Mews were part of the landscaping