PLANS by a bus and coach operator to use farm land for storing vehicles are likely to be approved despite opposition from some people.

Procters, which runs the network of Dales and District services, stores some vehicles on an industrial estate in Leases Road, Leeming Bar, near Northallerton.

For the past five years, others have been kept half-a-mile north on the same road at Leases Farm, where permission is being sought tomorrow from Hambleton District Council's development control committee for change of use of agricultural land to a storage yard.

The committee will be told that Procters has so far been thwarted in attempts to establish another depot on the fourth phase of the expanded industrial estate because the site is intended primarily for companies dealing in food.

The main access to Leases Farm is through Leeming Bar, and Aiskew and Leeming Bar Parish Council is urging refusal of the application because it has serious concerns about road safety.

Its claim that buses often give the impression of speeding has been passed to the passenger transport group at North Yorkshire County Council by planning officers.

Three letters of objection have been received from residents who say they are concerned about noise, speeds and the effects of traffic from Leases Farm on a caravan site popular with holidaymakers.

Committee members have visited the site and planning officer Helen Laws, who recommends conditional permission, says that it is well screened by landscape features, including mature hedges.

Mrs Laws says that even if Procters had succeeded in moving to the expanded industrial estate its vehicles would still have had to pass the same houses in Leases Road.

She says: "The effect of additional disturbance was considered at the time of the planning application for the estate's expansion.

"It was concluded that the development would inevitably lead to an increase in traffic on Leases Road.

"Concerns expressed by neighbours and the operators of a caravan site that coaches operating from Leases Farm cause increased noise must be considered in light of the proximity to the existing industrial estate and the A1.

"This cannot be described as a quiet or pollution-free area.''