THE chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park has accused campaigners fighting a controversial planning decision of hijacking the situation for political gain.

The authority's decision to refuse permission for the barn at Cams Houses, near Hawes, to be converted to affordable housing for a couple and their three young children has created a storm of protest in the Dales.

A petition signed by more than 1,500 people was handed in at last week's meeting of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council.

But in a statement issued by the national park authority this week, chief executive David Butterworth launched a thinly-veiled attack on Coun John Blackie, chairman of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council and former deputy chairman of the national park authority.

He said: "A decision to refuse an application for a barn conversion in the open countryside has been allowed to become the vehicle for a wave of hostility against this authority, its members and officers.

"The accusation is that by refusing the application we are actively working to undermine local communities. This is nothing short of fantasy.

"Public debate over this application has been hijacked by those who really should know better."

Mr Butterworth said the responsibility for building affordable housing in the Hawes area lay firmly at the door of Richmondshire District Council, of which Coun Blackie is leader.

He said on Wednesday: "The district council should be working with housing associations to build affordable housing. Yet, as far as I am aware, in Wensleydale the council has not been able to get a single new affordable dwelling built in the last ten years.

"Today, this authority, through its review of the local plan, has tabled proposals that will allow for the development of up to 700 dwellings across the national park that will be restricted to local occupancy."

He added: "The time has now come for the authorities with the remit to deliver affordable housing to get on and do it and for the politicians to stop their crowing every time we refuse an application on sound, published and agreed policy grounds."

Coun Blackie hit back, saying a petition with 1,519 signatures out of a possible 2,000 in three parishes showed it was not just a sideshow.

He said: "Far from hijacking the debate, the local people wanted to use the petition to flag up their concerns to a national park authority that did not seem to be listening to them. That is not fantasy. To local people it appears to be a fact of life."

He added: "Remember that local politicians at the national park voted to approve the barn application at Cams. It was David Butterworth as chief executive who refused to allow their commitment to their local people to be tested with a higher authority, the Secretary of State."

He defended Richmondshire District Council's record of providing affordable housing in partnership with housing associations and said this was continuing .

"David Butterworth's comments about the role of the district council in the provision of local affordable housing are completely and utterly without foundation," he said.

* Letters to the Editor and Spectator's Notes: page 2