HOUSEHOLDERS won the battle to save their gardens from disappearing under a major Northallerton housing development.

Residents in Bridge Terrace had faced losing their gardens, leased from Allerton Engineering, when the company sells the site to Persimmon Homes, which plans to build 43 houses and 19 flats on the land.

But last minute talks saw Persimmon accept an offer from the residents to buy back the gardens, although no legal agreement could be made because Allerton Engineering still own the land.

Spokesman for the Bridge Terrace residents, Barry Hall said: "We have withdrawn our objections and offered our support to the plans to be approved in principle."

Hambleton District Council discussed the plans last Thursday and actually deferred making the final the decision, despite council officers recommending the plan be approved.

Councillors argued that they could not make a ruling on the scheme as the drawings in front of them did not now represent the final development.

Coun John Coulson said: "There are so many ifs and buts. We have just got this information about the agreement with the residents this morning and I think there has got to be more consideration given to this for the residents living there."

Allerton Engineering is planning to relocate on to Darlington Road, a move that it says will allow them to increase their workforce by 50 per cent.

However, councillors wanted guarantees that the company would not move out of the area once the Romanby Road site was sold, angering Allerton Engineering's chairman Lawrence Ellis, who says that they are totally committed to Northallerton.

He said: "We are extremely disappointed with the decision. We have been here for 50 years and we are committed to Northallerton. To have them question our commitment, I find a bit off putting.

"Had the decision been made a day earlier, we would have been issuing the contracts for the build on Darlington Road next week.