RESIDENTS living in the shadow of one of North Yorkshire’s leading industrial estates have accused a council of ignoring a government inspector’s questions about its plans to extend the estate by the equivalent of 20 rugby pitches.

Leeming Bar Action Group has made numerous complaints over Hambleton District Council’s treatment of a public consultation about its proposed Local Plan, which is looking to set in stone its ambition to expand the industrial estate beside the A1(M) near Bedale.

The local authority announced last summer it was in talks with the owners of 30 hectares of land to add to the Leeming Bar estate and it is understood much of the area has effectively been allocated for the use of a single business, soft drinks giant Cawingredients.

Ahead of the latest public consultation over the proposed Local Plan closing next week, the action group said despite the blueprint’s major consequences for communities, the council had not publicised the consultation to residents.

Group spokesman Dr Matthew Sawyer said: “It does feel frustrating that the democratic process relies on individuals or small groups such as ours rather than being publicised and being conducted in a transparent manner from the council.”

The group says while government inspectors had asked the council to show a chronology of events which led to the site being chosen by the council, the authority’s response featured “few dates, many vague references and the timeline apparently jumps back and forth”.

The campaigners said the inspectors also challenged the council over the size and nature of buffers between residents and the proposed industrial estate, but the council had not addressed this at all.

Dr Sawyer said: “It’s no surprise to us that Hambleton has not been able to answer many of these questions satisfactorily, as their strategy with regard to the site never made sense.”

The group maintains that there are many problems with the proposed siting of up to 20 hectares of new industrial units on the Aiskew Moor site, such as ruining Leeming Bar village and losing valuable farmland and that the extension would not help create many jobs.

Dr Sawyer said: “It’s being done for one company which currently rates higher in the council’s priority list than an entire community. It is tragic that we would lose the glorious landscapes, the irreplaceable arable land, and the wildlife it supports for this project but even worse that it isn’t being done to create lots of jobs, or benefit the community.”

A council spokeswoman said it had sent letters to more than 1,000 people and organisations who were required by law to be advised or who had previously made comment to the council about the emerging Local Plan.

She said the letters had invited comment on the latest Local Plan evidence and that people had also been alerted to the consultation by email. The spokeswoman said: “The council has not yet published the main modifications that are required to meet the guidance from the inspectors set in their post-hearing letter.

“It is expected that the main modifications will be considered by the council and consulted upon later in the year.”