A PLANNING application to build holiday chalets in a North Yorkshire village has been recommended for approval despite objections from the local parish council.

The application for the ten chalets next to Stonebridge Trout Lakes, at Little Fencote, near Northallerton, has also received seven letters of objection, including one signed by 21 local residents and land owners.

The Stonebridge Trout Lakes complex has three recreational fishing lakes, and the five three-bedroom and five two-bedroom cabins would be sited between two of the lakes.

The parish council has objected to the scheme as it feels the chalets would increase the size of Little Fencote village by 50 per cent and would have a detrimental impact upon the area. It also feels the chalets would be too large and out of keeping with the surroundings.

Objectors are also concerned the chalets could be converted to residential use.

However, Hambleton District Council planning officer Lydia Spiller said that although the cabins have the potential to cause visual harm, staining the cabins a dark colour and screening them would reduce the impact.

She said: "The timber chalets are not of a design which is characteristic of the area; to that extent I would regard them as incongruous features in the rural landscape.

"However, ten cabins is not a large number and individually they are fairly small. Consequently, they would not be out of scale with the village."

The development control committee will discuss the application at the Civic Centre, Northallerton, on Thursday.