HEAVY goods traffic is set to increase by up to 500 per cent through a small village after residents defeated expansion plans for a nearby mushroom factory that would have resulted in the vehicles being diverted.

Greyfriars UK, based at Wath, near Ripon, had submitted proposals to Harrogate Borough Council to build a growing shed measuring 100x71 metres next to their current packaging operation.

The plans had been opposed by local people, who set up the Wath Against Mushrooms (Wam) group due to concerns about extra traffic through the village.

More than 114 lorries travel through Wath each week, bringing mushrooms from Poland, which are then packaged and distributed from the site.

The plans were rejected unanimously by councillors on the grounds that the development was unsustainable, too remote and on roads that could not cope with the level of proposed traffic.

However the decision means that the company will now build several smaller mushroom growing operations elsewhere in Yorkshire with lorries from each of the sites having to pass through the village – significantly increasing the amount of traffic.

If the plans had been passed by the council, the Highways Agency would have upgraded a road that bypasses the village allowing traffic to avoid it.

The upgrade cannot take place without the expansion.

John Smith, chairman of Greyfriars UK, said: "The decision will have the reverse effect on what the people were looking for. If we can’t expand by our preferred route then we will have to go to Plan B.

"I’m far from happy about this. It would have been far better for us to have our growing facility on site."

Wam members are claiming victory over Greyfriars and say they won’t be swayed by what the company says about traffic increases.

A spokesman for the group said: "We were delighted that planners took notice of the many objections we raised and recommended refusal.

"We may be threatened by Greyfriars but we won’t be intimidated. We realise they may appeal against the decision but the community, the planners and now the councillors have spoken – there is no place for industrial development in a rural area."