A NEW planning application for a house near Hawes, identical to one controversially rejected last year, has been submitted.

Public anger erupted when the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority refused permission for conversion of a barn at Cams Houses to a home for a local builder, his partner and their three young children.

The application was twice approved by the planning committee but was rejected on the advice of the authority monitoring officer when debated a third time.

The barn conversion, for rent in perpetuity to the family, would have contravened planning policy, which limits residential development in the countryside.

David Winspear, a self-employed builder, and his partner, Sharon Spensley, said the family might have to move away from Upper Wensleydale because they could not afford local property prices.

The controversy sparked a move to expand the number of settlements where such residential conversions for occupation by local people would be allowed. A list of proposed settlements to be included, which would include the Cams House site, is currently going through the local plan process.

A spokeswoman for the national park authority confirmed the new application was identical to the original proposal and was likely to be debated by the committee in September. The new plan is from the same applicant.

Coun John Blackie, who led the campaign to have the original application approved and presented a 1,500-name petition on behalf of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council, was pleased a fresh application had been submitted.

"It is better to test this out at the national park rather than go to appeal, given the change of policy that has taken place since the Cams debate," he said. "The emerging draft local plan policy is that the list of settlements for barn conversion for local needs housing is extended by 31 settlements, including Cams.

"That, plus the change of farm diversification policy envisaged in the local plan, which allows a farmer who gets permission for a holiday cottage to switch between holiday and residential letting for local people, changes the context in which the application can now be considered."

Coun Blackie hoped the application would not go to the committee before October to give parish councils, which generally did not meet in August, chance to study the details and comment fully.