A NORTH Yorkshire village has voted to press ahead with a bid to thrash out its blueprint for the future.

More than 100 people attended a meeting called by Middleton Tyas Parish Council to discuss the principle of a community plan.

By far the majority were in favour of progressing the project, which could unlock grants from the Countryside Agency under the organisation's Vital Villages initiative, which encourages rural communities to play a greater role in running their own affairs.

The cash will also help cover the cost of research into the priorities - although it has been emphasised voluntary assistance will remain a crucial part of the project.

Parish council chairman Graham Thomas told the meeting: "This is something in which we need to involve the whole community.

"It is not intended to be a plan which the parish council hands down."

Education, health care, traffic, policing and post office services have already emerged among villagers' main concerns.

However, a steering group will now be formed to establish just how serious each issue is before the whole community is involved in the compilation of a priority list.

Mr Graham said: "We expect to see a number of projects emerging from it, which will go on over the next few years.

"It is also obvious from the discussions so far there are a number of things we can tackle more or less straight away, so residents should see some early progress before the autumn too.

"Not least, I hope it will be fun and one of the outcomes will be that people will get to know each other better."