AMENDED plans to build a second farmhouse in Gargrave have finally been approved by Craven District Council's planning committee.

Farmer Mark Falshaw was told his previous application for a detached house and garage could not go ahead at his farm at Kelber Hill, Gargrave, because it was too far away from the original homestead.

The footprint of the proposed plan was also regarded as being too large.

Speaking at the latest planning meeting, Mr Falshaw said his family had worked closely with planning officers throughout the application.

He said the new three/four bedroom house would now be situated adjacent to the south side of the original farmstead for his family to live in, and the old farmhouse would become a farm worker's dwelling.

The planning committee had refused previous applications because the proposed farmhouse was too far from the farmstead and in prominent open rural countryside.

However, officers recommended approval of the latest plans and considered that the scale, siting and design of the proposal was an acceptable form of development in a location adjacent to the original farmhouse.

They were also satisfied there was a need for an additional worker to live on site.

Coun Stephen Butcher voted to approve the plans.

"I am satisfied the new farmhouse is to be constructed in a much better position," he told the meeting.

Coun Paul Whitaker added: "It's in the right place now."

And Coun Marcia Turner stated: "It's now where we wished it to be, rather than exposed at the top of the hill."

She also asked that the wording of the application be changed from "agricultural worker's dwelling" to "new farmhouse" as the new building was going to become the principal farmstead and the old house a farm worker's dwelling.

The application includes the construction of a new access approximately 100 metres to the south of the site which will serve the farm complex and the new farmhouse.

The existing vehicular access is to be retained solely to serve the existing farmhouse, which is occupied by the applicant's parents.

The construction of the new access will involve the removal of 110 metres of roadside hedge to achieve the required visibility splays onto Broughton Road.

A new hedge will be planted on the line of the splay, the meeting heard.