PLANNERS are ready to set aside their own policies to allow a health club to branch out into yoga.

Tangerine Health Club, set up 20 years ago in part of a former raincoat factory, in Beech Avenue, Harrogate, wants to expand into complementary therapies.

The club, which offers a range of leisure facilities including gym, and aerobics classes, has asked Harrogate Borough Council for consent to turn an office and storage complex on the site into a centre offering 24 different complementary treatments.

It would have three healing rooms, a meditation lounge and a studio catering for yoga and stress management.

Councillors are due to give it the go-ahead on a trial basis, in spite of a policy which insists premises used for jobs should not change.

Area planning officer Helen Sephton will urge the planning committee to back the scheme when it meets tomorrow, after the authority's economic development officer, Nigel Avison, gave it his blessing.

Mr Avison said the office space to be taken over was poor quality and was not attracting occupants. Using the space to promote health would bring part-time jobs to the site, he said.

Miss Sephton said the only real concern was over parking. But a two-year temporary consent would allow for an assessment of parking difficulties and any noise problems.