A FARMER has said he will not make any changes to a sunken lane which he filled in last year.

Andrew Avison, from Middlefields Farm in Melmerby, near Middleham, filled in Lickber Lane last year because he said it was waterlogged and impassible.

He said he owns the bottom half of the lane so the only public right of way was the upper section of the lane, which is now suitable for walkers and horses.

But members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority planning committee refused retrospective planning permission again at a meeting on Tuesday, March 12, and said it was a Highways Authority matter and it should be up to them to force Mr Avison to restore the lane.

Mr Avison said the lane had been a drainage channel and that he would not be making any changes to it.

The matter will be reviewed in three months time.