A COUPLE'S plans to extend their farm shop are being hampered by a lack of signs.

Mr Rodney Ake and his wife, Gillian, have operated Spring House farm shop on the main Leeming to Northallerton Road since 1997 and, although they have slowly built up a steady trade, many motorists drive past the farm without knowing the shop is there.

All that is visible from the main road is the blank outer walls of the farm buildings. The car park and shop are invisible to passers-by and, when the couple applied for planning permission to erect a sign at either end of the building, it was rejected.

Hambleton planners claimed the signs would pose a traffic hazard and even ordered them to take down a banner they had put up.

"We do have planning permission to extend the shop, but we don't really want to do that until we have built the customer base a bit more," said Mr Ake.

The couple have found themselves in the classic situation where, on one hand, they have planning permission to operate the shop but the same council has refused to let them erect signs.

Today the government is urging farms to diversify - shops being one of the main alternatives - but when Mr and Mrs Ake opened their shop they were one of the first in the region.

"There were none around here when we started; we actually went to the south of England to look at some down there before we opened," said Mr Ake.

The couple are also doing exactly what the government is urging farmers to do - selling their own goods and as much other local produce as possible.

The farm is 99 acres in size but the couple have just decided to rent out 76 acres on a farm business tenancy basis to concentrate on their free range poultry enterprise.

They started in poultry in 1990 with a flock of 3,000 birds, supplying a packer. It was when the prices they received began to fall that they decided to invest in the shop and market their own eggs.

Today they have about 4,000 free range hens which are purpose bred for egg production.

"Our plan is to get 800 hens in every week to get a constant supply of the large eggs which people seem to want," said Mr Ake, who also grows six acres of potatoes for the shop, which sells about two tonnes a week.

Today the shop is housed in a well-converted pig sty and farrowing house and sells a complete range of produce, mostly from local suppliers.

Mrs Ake bakes and cooks every day of the week but Sunday. Her cakes and quiches are particularly popular.

She starts baking each day at 7am to 7.30 in the morning, through until 4.30 in the afternoon when she goes to the farm house to cook the tea.

One of her customers is Thorpe Perrow arboretum, which takes up to 30 cakes at a time.

Most customers come from the immediate area and have heard about the shop by word of mouth but they do have regular clients from Newcastle and Stokesley.

The well-stocked shop sells Yorkshire dales beef from Patrick Brompton; Rosebud Preserves from Healey, near Masham; sausages from Masham; Brymor ice-cream and Just Puds among a vast array of other produce.

"We attract about 400 customers a week, probably 100 of those on a Saturday, and, although we want to extend the shop, we would like to build the customer base a bit more," said Mr Ake.

"We do feel signs would let a lot more people know we are here, at the moment there is only a small A-board which is not very good."

A spokesman for Hambleton council said it had to take into account highway matters and the visual impact any signs might have on the ountryside.

However the council urged Mr and Mrs Ake to talk to officers to see if a solution could be found.