A £410,000 village school built in the wrong place can stay where it is, planners have decided.

Members of North Yorkshire County Council planning committee granted retrospective planning permission for Grewelthorpe Church of England Primary School at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon.

But the chairman, Councillor Herbert Tindall, and some other councillors expressed concern that they were dealing with a retrospective application for the scheme.

The application was tabled after it was discovered that the building had been built four-and-a-half metres to the south and two metres to the west of plans originally tabled.

But despite misgivings about the situation, councillors backed a planning officer's recommendation to grant permission for the school to remain.

Their decision followed a recent site visit to the school and neighbouring property to assess the impact of the development.

Objectors said the re-sited building had a significant impact on their privacy.

The school replaces a 126-year-old building nearby and followed a campaign, lasting almost 40-years, to secure new premises.