A PARISH council which described a derelict building as a "pile of stone rubble" has won its battle to prevent it being turned into a house.

Ellingstring Parish Council, at Masham, near Ripon, objected to a planning application to create the home with a vehicle access in a field near Honey Cote Farm.

But councillors on the Ripon area planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council refused the application, backing a recommendation by planning officer Dennis Harling.

Mr Harling said the highest part of the remains were 4ft tall.

Parish council members said it was an agricultural site on which, they claimed, there had never been a dwelling.