A VILLAGE has been taken by surprise by a bid for a waste transfer station on a trading estate.

Yorwaste has asked Richmondshire District Council for permission to set up the centre off Gatherley Road in Brompton-on-Swale.

The project has been advertised on site and council officers were set to make a decision once the statutory consultation period expired.

But when asked for their opinion, members of Brompton-on-Swale Parish Council were largely unaware of the application and some are now pressing the local authority to take the project to the environment committee to give district councillors a chance to debate and vote on the scheme.

Businesses nearby are among those planning to resist the waste transfer station.

"It would be devastating for us and other businesses," said Richard Roper of Roper's Caravan World. "It would be right next door to us and would cripple us We have been here 20 years but I am not going to work right next door to a rubbish tip. People wouldn't come here."

A spokesman for Richmondshire District Council said the matter could still be referred to the environment committee for a full debate, once the concerns of local people are known.