CAMPAIGNERS have stepped up a fight to save a Guisborough farm from development.

More than 120 people attended a public meeting in Guisborough Parish Hall to hear how Southlands Development Company plans to clad 19th Century Dutch barns at Home Farm, near Hutton village.

The farm, which contains grade II listed buildings, has been at the centre of controversy since the developers applied to the North Yorkshire Moors National Park Authority for permission to change farm buildings into four homes with office and studio space.

The company has now dropped an appeal against a decision to refuse that application, but has submitted further plans, which would involve corrugated metal cladding and roller doors being put on two Dutch barns at the farm.

The Friends of Home Farm Action Group, which was set up to show support for the farm, believes that if planning permission is granted the farmer will be forced out of the farm buildings so that they can be converted into residential use.

The Wilkinson family have been tenant farmers at the farm since the 1920s.

At the meeting, John Wright, chairman of the group, said if the barns were clad they could not be used to store straw and fodder because it would go mouldy. The combine harvester would not be kept under cover and that would affect the viability of the farm.

He said the group plans to ask the National Trust to take over the ownership of the farm because it was at the cutting edge of 1870s farm technology.

It used the same turbine technology as Cragside farm in Northumberland, owned by Sir William Armstrong, which was the first house illuminated by hydro electricity.

He also said local people were preparing to restore the grade II listed farm machinery themselves, and that Forest Enterprise was prepared to clean out Blue Lake, which supplies water to Home Farm. He added that walks from the nearby Pinchinthorpe Visitor Centre to the machinery could be arranged.

People were asked to send their objections to the latest proposal to the planning authority in Helmsley by September 14.

The authority will be considering the plans at either its September or October meeting.