RESIDENTS of a village have voiced fears that plans to build retirement flats on a meadow will result in their cottages being flooded.
Fifty residents of Kirby Mills, on the outskirts of Kirkbymoorside, are asking Rye-dale District Council to block the plan.
They have given several reasons why the plan should be turned down. Top of the list are the perceived risk of flooding and the loss of a the field next to the A170 Thirsk-to-Scarborough road.
Jane Newson, one of the objectors to the plan, said a number of the cottages - some of which date back 400 years - had been flooded in the past three years as a result of the River Dove bursting its banks.
The scheme has been proposed by retired chartered engineer Ronald Coates, who said that in the past the site had been let for grazing sheep, but despite advertising the land there had been no response.
He said: "I firmly believe that the economic and social benefits of the development will far outweigh any possible loss or damage to the character of the area."
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