A QUARRY firm wishing to expand its sand and gravel workings says it has received 72 letters backing the scheme.

But when Ripon area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council meets on Tuesday, it is being recommended by planners to object to an application by Brown and Potter, on a site at Littlethorpe, near Ripon Racecourse.

The local planning committee can only make observations on the scheme - North Yorkshire County Council's planning committee will have the final say.

Borough council planning officer Jill North said the 18 hectare site was not a small scale extension.

Her report said there was a lack of firm commitment to restoration plans at the site and that the scheme was likely to have an adverse impact on the landscape's character, the amenity of the River Ure corridor and opportunities for informal recreation along its foopaths and the Ripon canal towpath.

Brown and Potter said the 72 letters of support had come from small firms, farmers and invdividuals who live or work in the Ripon, Boroughbridge and Harrogate areas.

"Many of them will themselves employ people who will, in turn, be adversely affected if Ripon Quarry were to close," said the firm.

Littlethorpe Parish Council has already mounted strong protests, describing the scheme as a massive extension which would dwarf previous operations on the site. "The proposal is for a major development and it must not be passed off as small scale," the council said.