A wheelchair user's plea for a specially adapted extension to his home has won the backing of a family doctor and councillors, but is still being challenged by planners.

Members of Ripon area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council, who voted in favour of the plan, went against planners' advice to turn down the scheme and must look again at the application at a future meeting under new planning rules.

The applicant's family doctor sent a letter to the committee confirming the man's disability, and his urgent need for extra facilities at Crow Wood Cottage, South Stainley, near Ripon, as soon as possible.

Mr and Mrs W Kendall applied for permission to erect a two-storey extension with a conservatory, single storey extension, and an outbuilding including a double garage, stables and store. They also sought an extension to the domestic curtilage.

Part of the extensions would have provided an additional en suite bedroom for a disabled person on the ground floor with another en suite bedroom on the first floor.

Planning officer Helen Sephton said it was accepted there was a need for improved facilities for the applicant, who uses a wheelchair.

She agreed that government guidance stated personal circumstances of an applicant might be a material consideration. But the guidance also pointed out that such arguments seldom outweighed more general planning considerations. Works of a permanent nature, it stated, would remain long after the personal circumstances of the applicant had ceased to be material.

Councillors were told the extension would be contrary to the district Local Plan, which sought to ensure homes in the countryside were not extended by more than 50 per cent of their original footprint.

A planning official said the application would now have to be reconsidered at a future meeting.