A PARISH council chairman has criticised planning officers for backing plans for a residential school for children with learning difficulties despite widespread objections.

In a statement, Goldsborough and Flaxby Parish Council's chairman, Councillor Jamie Search, said the parish council and villagers were shocked the scheme was being recommended for approval.

His statement came only days before a planning committee ruling on the future of Goldsborough Hall, near Knaresborough, a listed building which until recently was a Bupa care home.

Members of an area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council will decide whether to grant permission for the hall to become a school for 27 people aged eight to 19 with learning difficulties.

More than 800 objections in letters and a petition have been tabled.

Coun Search said the objections were based on the advice of planning consultants.

He said: "These include unacceptably high levels of traffic - nearly double Bupa's usage - an inappropriate use of the listed building and the impact on local amenity, especially those in adjacent sheltered housing of Stansfield Court."

James Brown, representing the Senad Group, which wants to run the school, has told planners that fencing would act as a physical and visual barrier for student safety rather than security and that the school would be registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

He said the benefit of a setting such as Goldsborough Hall, would allow a greater deal of freedom than a site in the middle of a town.

Planning officer Kate Will-iams is recommending that the listed building application should be notified to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and that it should be approved if he does not call in the application for a decision.