A PLANNING inquiry is set to be held into proposals for a 226-home development on agricultural land that generated hundreds of objections before being refused by a council.

A government inspector has been appointed by the Secretary of State to examine the scheme to create the estate off Tanton Road, Stokesley.

Developers launched an appeal last September over Hambleton District Council's decision to reject the plan, on the grounds it was a greenfield site outside the development limits of Stokesley, lying on the town's north-east boundary.

Councillors said more suitable sites in the area had already been identified for housing.

The inquiry, which will begin on June 2, at 10am, at The Golden Lion Hotel, High Street, Northallerton, will look at flood risk areas and the suitability of mitigation measures proposed by the developer alongside whether it will meet housing needs.

More than 260 objections, including from campaign group Keep Stokesley Special and Stokesley Parish Council, to the planning application were lodged with the district council.

The site lies on farmland between the town and a wooded area and is outside the district council's Local Development Framework, a set of documents that guide planning and development in the area.

Many objections centred around the loss of green space, the potential impact on local wildlife in the area and concerns over resulting flooding.

Ahead of the scheme being refused by the district council, a Stokesley Parish Council spokesman said: “Stokesley is a conservation area and this would have a massively detrimental effect on the town, because the application is totally disproportionate; it would increase the size of the town by about ten per cent.”

Planning consultants Johnson Brook said the estate, which would include a mix of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses of two to three storeys, would be sympathetic to the surrounding area, supply affordable homes for the area and improve roads and street lighting.

A month after the council rejected the Tanton Road scheme, councillors approved a project to build 183 homes at White Horse Farm, south-east of the town.

The White Horse Farm plans had also received numerous objections, but site was in an area previously marked as suitable for housing by the district council and was supported by the Hambleton branch for the Campaign to Protect Rural England.