A VILLAGE action group and parish council has helped block plans for a 40-bedroomed nursing home.

Four Seasons Health Care wanted to build a two-storey nursing home and convert an existing home into "close care" apartments, at Westfield Nursing Home, Ripon Road, Killinghall, near Harrogate.

Members of Harrogate Borough Council's planning committee voted to reject the scheme, backing a four point refusal recommendation from planning officer Neville Watson.

Killinghall Village Protection Group said the scheme would break village development limits so much that it would send out the wrong message to other potential developers.

The height and size of the building would be totally out of character for a village development, leaving nearby residents overshadowed, overlooked and overwhelmed, said the group.

It also expressed concern about destruction of established hedges if the scheme went ahead.

Killinghall Parish Council said no special justification had been made for exceeding development limits.

Individual objectors protested about the scale and mass of development, parking issues, loss of trees and over-development of the site.

But Four Seasons Health Care said the project combined the best of both worlds, giving nursing care with close care adjoining.

A representative for the company said: "The whole scheme meets an important need in the non-urban and rural community north of Harrogate and most of Nidderdale."