A LEGAL action threat has delayed a decision over whether to allow new affordable homes to be built in the Yorkshire Dales.

Horn Blower Developments Ltd has applied to build five affordable homes in Bainbridge, Richmondshire, as part of the second phase of a development that has already seen eight homes built on an adjacent site.

However, solicitors Hill Dickinson, acting for a Bainbridge resident, claimed that the public had not been properly consulted over the plans and that not enough evidence had been put forward to prove that the properties in the application would be wholly affordable.

Members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) heard this week that planning officers were confident that a formal period of public consultation had been observed and that figures supplied by other local authorities amply demonstrated that the new homes would be affordable.

Officers, however, further advised members to defer the decision so that residents could make any further comments on the application and that more evidence could be compiled.

Member champion for development management, Robert Heseltine, explained: “The legal threat by some local residents serves only to highlight how difficult it is to get new houses built even when Authority officers, the local parish council and most of the community are in support of them.

“I hope the legal threat can be dealt with efficiently, so that the planning committee has the opportunity to make a decision early next year.”

The application seeks full planning permission for two semi-detached houses, one with two bedrooms and the other with three, and a terrace of three houses, made up of one two-bedroom house lying between two three-bedroom houses.

The houses would be built just outside Bainbridge’s housing development boundary, in a field to the rear of the Grade II listed Rose and Crown pub.

The delay to the house building comes in a week that Yorkshire Dales National Park leaders are looking at bringing in a dramatic 500 per cent rise in council tax on second homes in the area – bringing average bills up to £8,500 a year in a bid to attract families to the area.

The move is proposed in a special report by the national park’s chief executive David Butterworth who warns the rising number of second homes has pushed up house prices beyond the reach of local people, placing an unsustainable strain on amenities.