Community leaders have expressed frustration over developers using the planning system to achieve much bigger concerns than were originally thought acceptable.

A meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s Thirsk and Malton constituency planning committee heard claims holiday park owners were regularly lodging applications for incremental increases in the number of units on their sites after having established the principle of land use with a more modest development with lesser impacts.

The meeting heard after consent for 16 lodges and a shop had been granted for a site off Daskett Hill in Sheriff Hutton in November 2021, leading to the principle of the site’s future use being established.

Last year developer John Wilson submitted a proposal for 32 lodges on the site, before reducing it to 24 lodges, claiming more facilities were needed at the site to “move and react to demand in order to preserve financial buoyancy”.

An agent for the developer told the meeting the site had been considered in terms of its impact on the setting of the village and proximity to ruined nearby 14th Century castle.

But some residents and Sheriff Hutton Parish Council criticised the scheme as “overdevelopment” and said the development close to the scheduled monument could create an “eyesore” and affect traffic in the village.

A report to the meeting stated the council’s archaeologist had said the development would be across well preserved remains of part of a medieval ridge and furrow field system that related directly to the setting of the castle making “a significant contribution to the medieval character of the settlement”.

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Filey councillor Sam Cross said he had been happy to accept 16 lodges on the site, but “what we’re looking at is clear overdevelopment of the site”, which would lead to much more traffic in the village which already had “plenty of holiday accommodation”.

He questioned when moves to increase the number of units on the site would end.

Cllr Cross said: “You see it time and time again on the coast where they put developments in and the keep increasing and increasing them and make it far less attractive the site.”

Other elected members, including the committee’s chair, Councillor Caroline Goodrick said they were “disappointed” with the move to increase the number of lodges by 50 per cent, which could mean up to 16 more cars entering and leaving the site.

However, councillors concluded as the latest proposal would remove the provision of a shop on site and introduce a 24-hour warden, it would outweigh the damage of the extra lodges on the village.