Villages in the Easingwold area are to be protected under proposals in the district-wide local plan for the area.

Hambleton district councillors yesterday rejected recommendations by the local plan inspector to remove development limits from villages in the area.

Development limits outline the geographical area within which building can take place.

Market towns in the district have them, but the inspector said proposed development in villages should be judged on its individual merits according to a set of guidelines rather than a geographic boundary.

Councillors have rejected this recommendation and say development limits for villages should stay.

Steve Quartermain, director of planning and environmental services for the district council, said councillors had two key concerns over the inspector's suggestion.

He said: "One was that people would find the plan less easy to understand. The whole purpose of the plan is to give clear guidance."The second is that development in villages would become more ad hoc."

The plan sets out the policies to guide development in the area until the year 2006.

District councillors from the Easingwold area will meet on Friday to discuss the inspector's recommendations in detail.

The inspector's report is based on a public inquiry into objections to the local plan which took place in 1996.

The inspector recommends the council makes 144 changes to the plan, of which district councillors are being urged to accept 100 - or 70 per cent.

Of the 44 to be rejected, 35 related to the issue of development limits in villages.

The council is also poised to reject a recommendation to approve the building of six houses on land off Back Lane at Helperby, but may accept a proposal to allow 20 homes on land at Huby Old Hall, Huby.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.