Householders yesterday confronted local councillors over a housing scheme that could cost them their gardens.

Members of Hambleton's planning committee will this week decide whether to give the go-ahead to a scheme to build 43 houses and 19 flats in Romanby Road, Northallerton.

However their approval will mean people living in Bridge Terrace will lose their gardens, which are owned by the current occupier of the proposed site, Allerton Engineering.

When councillors held a site visit yesterday, the householders lobbied them to urge them to turn down the plans.

The engineering and bridge building company wants to sell the site to Persimmon Homes to enable it to relocate and expand at Darlington Road Industrial Estate. Persimmon's application has been amended to substitute the loss of the gardens with an area of landscaped open space and a play area.