PEOPLE in Aiskew are carrying out their threat to complain to the local government watchdog about the handling of a planning application for houses on the site of a former gas depot.

The number of proposed houses on the 2.5-acre site on Aiskew Bank, formerly occupied by Northern LPG Supplies, was progressively reduced from 53 last November to 40 in June this year during negotiations between Persimmon Homes and Hambleton planning department.

Planning officers said in April that a scheme involving 41 houses should be rejected because there was no substantial landscaping on the northern boundary and a mature hedge which would help to screen the estate could be damaged or lost.

Persimmon was given time to amend its plans to meet those concerns and a scheme involving 40 houses was recommended for conditional approval, being finally passed by the planning committee in June.

The only access will be along Back Lane, where residents objected to the density, proposed house types, the effects on local services and increased traffic hazards at the T junction with the A684. There were also concerns about land contamination.

This week it was confirmed that residents, who said they would have had no objection to about 20 houses because a modest development would tidy up the derelict site, were preparing to contact the local government Ombudsman.

A residents' spokesman said there were a number of concerns ranging from the "disrespectful" way in which observations and objections had been dealt with by the planning department to the recent start of highway works which had made Back Lane even narrower and was affecting private accesses.

"A letter is going off for and on behalf of about 40 people including all the residents of Back Lane and most of those in the immediate vicinity.

"There have been many debates and meetings and many objections to the number of houses, which are not in keeping with the area."