Skipton Town Council has fiercely objected to proposals to build new houses on a local garage site

Craven District Council asked members to consider the opportunity of demolishing garages and allotments on the rundown East Castle Street garage site and redevelop the whole area with new houses.

The land is currently home to a number of hen pens, allotments and about 150 garages, but a lot of it has become overgrown with weeds, and is used as a dumping ground.

Coun Paul English said: "I would hate to see them build more houses here. It would take away people's recreation.

"Where are these extra people going to go to school? It is not just a case of building houses. There is a lot of potential down there rather than just banging more low cost housing in."

John Sykes, head of housing and environmental health at Craven District Council, said: "The site has been a cause for concern for some time because it is frequently used for dumping and is used for unauthorised purposes."

The site had been used over the years for a mixture of purposes - for example the storage of washing machines, disposal of pet food and car workshops. Uses other than storing vehicles were not strictly permitted.

Even though access to the site may be difficult the council sees it as a potential brown field redevelopment site for either private housing or a mixture of private and affordable housing.

Town councillor Paul Whitaker said: "I still believe it should be used for large garages, to be used for small industrial businesses like painters and decorators. As far as houses go we have fought to keep the area green."

He added that if the area became free to build on it would open up the whole hill, which could be seen from all over Skipton, for development.

His thoughts were echoed by Coun Marcia Turner who said: "I think it would be unwise to lose our allotments. A lot of people are now buying terraced housing which have no gardens."

The views of the town councillors will be passed back to the relevant district council committee.

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