COUNCILLORS have demanded a site visit before deciding what to do about a planned small housing scheme in the centre of a market town.

They delayed a verdict on a planning application for two detached houses on land behind the Golden Bit fish shop in Horsefair, Boroughbridge.

The highways authority is recommending refusal, saying an access road leading to the site is not wide enough to cater for the pedestrians and vehicles that would be generated by the development.

Harrogate planning officer Andy Hough is also recommending refusal, but acknowledged that development of the site for homes would not be out of keeping with the locality or its conservation area status.

However, he expressed concern over intensive use of the small site in a "cramped form of development" and said the access road was not wide enough nor constructed to accommodate the development.

The town council is also opposing the development.

Other objections have also been put forward be neighbours, who say there are already problems with emergency service access and that more houses would make the problem worse.

Members of Harrogate Borough Council's planning committee will make a decision on the development this week.