DEVELOPERS have appealed against a decision to reject plans for 226 homes on farmland in North Yorkshire.

Controversial proposals by Johnson Brook to create a housing development off Tanton Road in Stokesley were refused permission by Hambleton District Council in May this year.

More than 260 objections to the plans were lodged with the district council, which were opposed by the campaign group Keep Stokesley Special and Stokesley Parish Council.

The site lies on agricultural land between the town and a wooded area and is outside the Local Development Framework (LDF).

Many objections centred around the loss of green space and potential impact on local wildlife in the area. Others were concerned about potential flooding.

Hambleton District Council rejected plans on the grounds it was a Greenfield site outside the development limits of Stokesley and more suitable sites in the area had already been identified for housing.

Speaking at a planning meeting at the Golden Lion in Northallerton in May this year, Derek Copeland from Stokesley Parish Council said: “This application is outside the local development framework and contrary to what residents want.

“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.”

But the developers argued the development would provide much-needed affordable homes, highways improvements, street lighting and they would provide children’s play parks. They also argued that potential flood risk areas had been identified and mitigation measures proposed.

The plans will now be heard by the planning inspectorate at a date yet to be announced.

Preparations are already underway to create a similar-sized housing development on the other side of Stokesley. In June this year, a month after the council rejected the Tanton Road development, separate plans to create a housing estate of 183 homes were approved by the district council.

About a third of the development, at White House Farm on the outskirts of the town, will contain affordable homes and there will be space for a community recreation area.

The plans had also received a number of objections, but the land came within an area already earmarked as suitable for housing by the district council. The White House Farm plans also had the backing of the Hambleton branch for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which argued the enormous need for housing needed to be met by building in “appropriate places”.