A former TV vet's dream of competing in the British Paralympic riding squad has moved closer after she overcame a planning hurdle.

Sally Kingsley, who starred in the hit BBC series Vets in Practice, had her riding career cut short by a serious illness three years ago.

She underwent neuro surgery in 2002 and 2003 and doctors warned she might suffer total deafness and loss of balance that would end her veterinary career.

But the 30-year-old has defied the doctors' predictions and could soon be competing for her country.

She has been granted the first stage of planning permission to develop a riding arena on land near Grove Garth House, Fellbeck, near Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire.

Members of Harrogate Borough Council area planning committee voted by six votes to two to approve the scheme.

But, because of planning procedures, councillors must re-run the application at next month's meeting.

Committee chairman Councillor Nigel Simms voted to support the project, which had been recommended for refusal by planning officers.

He said: "I hope it helps Sally to become successful at the Paralympics."

At home in Nidderdale, Sally, who retained 20 per cent of hearing in one ear but can no longer drive, having lost peripheral vision, said she was over the moon that councillors had voted in favour.

On leaving the meeting, she told them she "loved them all", raising a smile from the planners.

To gain a place in the British team in the Beijing Paralympics, she must exercise her horses every day in a formal school arena.

Without the arena on her doorstep, Sally would have had to be driven to the nearest ones at Birstwith and Markington, near Harrogate.