A SCHEME by a community's only pre-school playgroup to install a prefab as its headquarters should be refused, say planning officials.

The Squiggles playgroup, which uses a nearby cricket pavilion in the village of Spofforth, near Harrogate, wants a building of its own.

But when the Knaresborough area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council meets on Tuesday, councillors will be recommended to reject the idea.

Planning officer Naomi Waddington said the site, which is near Spofforth Castle, was an inappropriate development in the green belt and would harm the area's openness and visual amenity. She said roads leading to the site would be unsuitable for the extra traffic.

Spofforth Parish Council has not objected, but said the development should not act a precedent.

The scheme is backed by the Harrogate branch of the Pre-School Learning Alliance.

Staff and committee members of the nursery said there were no other pre-school facilities in Spofforth and that Squiggles was one of a small number of surviving village pre-school groups in the area.