VILLAGERS are set to make a last-ditch attempt to stop an enforcement officer from changing the use of a beauty spot to enable a Gypsy family to live there.

Residents of villages surrounding the one-acre smallholding in Bullamoor, near Northallerton,  are preparing to object to the plan at a Hambleton District Council planning meeting tomorrow (Thursday, January 31).

Planning officers have recommended councillors grant David Lovell permission to sell or rent the leisure plot off Scholla Lane, providing a single Gypsy family in need of accommodation lives on the site with no more than one static and one touring caravan.

They said other conditions of use would include that no part of the boundary hedge be uprooted and there is no external lighting or groundworks.

In a report to the committee, officers said there was a district-wide need for 26 pitches for Gypsy families before 2027 and that there are no Gypsy sites in or around Northallerton.

It added: “It is considered that whilst a residential use for one Gypsy family would create an intensification of use, it is felt that the disturbance would not be so significant as to unacceptably harm the amenities of the nearby neighbours.”

The application, which was triggered by Mr Lovell’s fury over mass evictions from Dale Farm travellers' site, in Essex, in October 2011, has attracted numerous objections, including from Osmotherley Parish Council, Northallerton Town Council and Allertonshire Civic Society.

The society said it was concerned about the size of the Gypsy family that would live on the greenfield site, that there would be nowhere for the residents to dispose of rubbish and the site would not be compatible with the surrounding area.

Residents have questioned whether Gypsy families should be given special treatment in an area where previous applications to erect similar homes have been rejected due to development restrictions.

Mr Lovell said subject to planning permission being granted, he had agreed to sell the site to a Gypsy couple from the Yorkshire area, who have nowhere to live and a son and a daughter of primary school age.