A baronet's plan to erect an obelisk to mark his son's marriage has been given the go-ahead by planners.

The parish council at Sett-rington, near Malton, in North Yorkshire, had opposed Sir Richard Storey's scheme to build the 7.6m high monument at The Grange, claiming it would spoil the area. Councillors wanted an alternative site to be considered.

But Ryedale District Council's central area planning comittee has given the project the go-ahead.

Architect Nick Cox told councillors that obelisks were often used both as eye-catchers to punctuate axes in the landscape, and as commemorative monuments.

The Storey family monument would commemorate the marriage and also act as a marker for different generations of the family living at Settrington Grange and Sett-rington House, he said.

Ryedale councillors were told in a report by planning officer Rachel Smith that the obelisk would not have an adverse effect on The Grange, a listed building.

She said it would be built of reconstituted stone. While the parish council had raised concerns from an architectural point of view, the North Yorkshire County Archaeologist had no objections as all recorded sites of interest at Settrington are to the east of the old railway line.