PARISH councillors are protesting over commercial development on their neighbours' ''patch'', claiming it will spoil their view across the Nidd Valley.

A Harrogate Borough Council development control committee is being asked to determine plans for a 9.3m-high office and workshop complex with parking and storage for vehicles, skips, machinery and materials beside Ripley's waste transfer station, at the village's former station on the north bank of the River Nidd.

And while Ripley Parish Council is happy for the development - wanted by construction company HACS - across the river there is a different view.

Killinghall Parish Council has lodged a protest, claiming that more building on a site where development has already grown considerably, and which is ''in full glare for all to see,'' is not on.

''It is considered intrusive in such an environmentally-sensitive area,'' said a spokesman.

A spokesman for HACS said the development was necessary to ensure the future of a firm which employed almost 120 people working with 108 vehicles and which had outgrown its present home.

Harrogate's economic development officer Nigel Avison has backed the idea, but planning staff are recommending refusal on the grounds of intrusion into the countryside.