VILLAGERS have lost their fight to prevent an extension to a quarry.

Ripon City Quarry has been granted permission to extend its site next to the city's racecourse in Boroughbridge Road.

The application will allow the quarrying of an extra 850,000 tonnes of sand and gravel from the site over the next nine years.

The application was backed by almost 80 letters of support after the applicants argued that the project would safeguard 25 jobs.

Councillors meeting at Northallerton approved the application by five votes to four, despite a protest by residents of Littlethorpe, near Ripon.

Councillor Roly Curtis, chairman of Littlethorpe Parish Council which gathered 435 names on a protest petition, said: "We won the argument, but not the vote.

"It is very disappointing. Now we shall have to take the medicine, which seems quite bad at the moment."

Coun Curtis, who spoke out against the 42-acre development at the meeting, was joined by Wendy Orme, who opposed the extension on behalf of local residents.

Ripon City Council had backed the scheme, along with Skelton-on-Ure Parish Council.