A VILLAGE is preparing for a fresh battle against developers who want to build more than 100 houses and flats near local homes.

Barratt York wants to build the development - which would include three-storey town houses - on the site of an old county council depot at Romanby, Northallerton.

The company originally submitted plans for the development in April, but residents of nearby Manor Green, Richmond Rise and Grange Close objected.

They claimed the development was out of character with the area and would lead to the loss of their privacy.

The developers were ordered back to the drawing board after Hambleton District Council agreed.

Now, a revised application is about to go before the authority but the new plans still contain proposals for three- storey buildings.

At a public meeting about the issue, local councillor Harold Bartram who has lived in Romanby for 46 years said: "The whole plan wants throwing back to Barratt's. They have not taken the slightest bit of notice as to what we have objected to. We don't want town houses in our village.

"Manor Green is still going to have three-storey houses directly behind the boundary. On the first plan, these were 15 metres from my boundary. On the new plans, they are only five metres away."

Coun Bartram said they did not object to the site being developed, but he said it had to be done in sympathy with the village.

He also criticised the siting of a proposed play area and the traffic congestion the new estate would generate.

Coun Bartram is now urging local residents to write to the district council, formally objecting to the scheme.

The parish council is expected to again raise objections to the scheme, which opponents claim also clashes with some aspects of the district's planning blueprint.

Hambleton's head of development control, Maurice Cann, confirmed the council would be debating a revised application next month.

"They may be enough to move this forward to where we can make a decision," he said.