NEW plans to build a £1 million factory on green belt land have been blasted by parish councillors.

Members of Elvington Parish Council revealed they are "totally opposed" to moves to erect a 30,000 square foot building for Portasilo Ltd.

The firm wants to move out of its Huntington base on to a plot at the village's Airfield Industrial Estate.

Portasilo, a subsidiary of the Shepherd Group, says it needs the new factory to house the materials handling and storage division.

This would allow its communications wing, which would stay in Huntington, to expand.

A previous application, sited just 300 yards from the present scheme, was withdrawn after protests.

Planning chiefs at City of York Council can agree to a change of use from the green belt if special circumstances are demonstrated.

The project could then be built by the applicant - land-owners William Birch and leased to Portasilo.

But following a parish council meeting on Monday night, chairman Coun Janice Stark said: "It is our policy to protect the green belt from inappropriate development and for this reason, the parish council totally opposes the erection of a factory building and associated facilities on Plot G of Elvington airfield business park.

"We consider the applicant has not demonstrated that the proposed development constitutes "very special circumstances" and the harm caused by an inappropriate development of this nature within the green belt clearly outweighs all other considerations put forward."

Their views have been passed on to planners at City of York Council, who will decide on the scheme.

A spokesman for Portasilo said: "Clearly the planning authority will take into account all the factors put forward and will look at any objections in the normal way."

Chris Birch, a director at William Birch, added: "I can understand the comments and I suppose development is always preferred elsewhere than on your own patch.

"But when you look at the site as a whole then the piece of land in question is in between two industrial areas. The site is already broken up as a green belt.

"It is an application that we have submitted and we now wait for some response from the planning authority."

Updated: 08:56 Thursday, September 06, 2001