VILLAGERS are preparing for the final hurdle in their long-running battle to prevent a former stately home being used as a school for children with learning difficulties.

At a planning meeting last month, councillors voted against the scheme near Knaresborough.

But because they went against planning officers' advice, which was to approve the scheme, members of the Knaresborough area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council must re-consider the application under special procedures tomorrow.

The scheme at Goldsborough Hall, a Grade Two listed building at Goldsborough, has attracted more than 800 objections.

At the meeting last month, councillors voted against three applications which would have paved the way for conversion of the hall.

Jamie Search, chairman of Goldsborough and Flaxby Parish Council, which has led the protest, said: "We have only won the first round at the moment."

Because of such public interest, the hearing has again been switched from its normal venue in Knaresborough to the borough council's main offices in Crescent Gardens, in Harrogate.

Goldsborough hall was until recently a BUPA care home.

During the 1920s, it assumed royal status because it was the home of the late Lord Harewood and Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V.

The home was owned by the Lascelles family until 1952.

A planning application has been tabled by BUPA which, if aproved, would allow the Senad Group to turn the home into a residential school for 27 people aged eight to 19.

They have severe communication and learning difficulties and are said to have challenging behaviour.

The Senad Group has said that fencing would act as both a physical and visual barrier for student safety, rather than security.

It has also said that the school would be registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection.