A FAMILY firm of travelling showmen has won an appeal against a decision banning them from using a site to store fairground equipment and mobile homes.

James Crow and Sons were refused permission to turn a transport depot in Dalton Lane, near Thirsk, into a depot for storing fairground amusements and to site the family's three mobile homes.

Hambleton District Council claimed there was insufficient justification for a residential presence at the site.

But Government inspector Richard Clegg, who presided over a public inquiry into the case, has overturned the authority's ruling and given the family the go-ahead.

The three mobile homes will be used as showmen's quarters.