An indoor children's play centre has been approved.

Harrogate Borough councillors ignored planners' advice and approved plans for the centre, on an industrial estate near Boroughbridge.

Planning officers had recommended refusal of the scheme, arguing it would mean the loss of two business units at Becklands Close, Bar Lane, Roecliffe.

Officers said the scheme, submitted by Victoria Pope, would conflict with borough council policy, which aims to protect business land.

Councillor Richard Cooper, the council's cabinet member for planning, said it seemed the recreation of youngsters outweighed the need for specific employment land.

The applicant said the existing business of a cycling equipment storage unit did not support the local community.

She said the centre would be used by the community.

She said: "We are pursuing a service industry. Why can't it be in an industrial unit? Between 80 and 90 per cent of independent play centres around the country occupy industrial units having successfully received planning permission."