A FIRM which has found it difficult to recruit local workers has been told it can keep a caravan for two employees on its industrial site for a year.

RE Duffield and Sons, whose timber yard is based at Melmerby village, near Ripon, applied to a Ripon area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council to retain the caravan on site as temporary accommodation for two Latvian workers.

The firm wanted the caravan to stay for five years. Councillors went against a planner's recommendation for refusal, but they stipulated the temporary home should remain for only a year.

Five councillors voted for the 12-month plan, with three against and there was one abstention.

Planning officer Linda Drake said there was no justification for a caravan on the site. "It is an inappropriate location within the open countryside. If approved, it would set a precedent for other local businesses to also apply for caravans," she said.

In a report, Mrs Drake said the fact that Ripon landlords "appear reluctant" to take on foreign workers as tenants and that alternative accommodation was costly did not justify a new dwelling on the site.

The firm said there was a lack of suitable local workers which led to providing a caravan. It also said it was not possible to find accommodation in Ripon and that hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation was too costly when added to the cost of travelling to the site.