PLANS for a statue of a family of deer are set to be approved to help promote and encourage visitors to stop at a market town where a new £42m bypass has been opened.

The lifesize group of eight deer, estimated to cost up to £50,000 would be built as a piece of public art at the side of the road on the edge of Bedale, close to a roundabout connecting with the new bypass.

Hambleton district council planning committee is being recommended to grant permission for the art, which would be opposite where a new car park was due to be built to encourage visitors to stop, but which has currently been shelved by the council because of estimated costs of £1.5m.

Planning Office Charlotte Cornforth recommends in a report to the planning committee the art design is approved. She says the scheme will not detract from the nearby Grade 1 listed buildings of Bedale Hall and St Gregory’s church and the herd of deer would have a natural appearance appropriate to the semi rural surroundings. The aim is to link it into a new art trail into the town.