Killinghall village "one large building site" councillors told

Planning committee councillors considered an application for 55-dwellings on a Grainbeck Lane field at a meeting earlier this month.

Addressing committee members, Killinghall Parish Councillor Chris Littlefair claimed the village had been “unfairly targeted with too many housing developments”, with the Grainbeck application to be the eighth large development across the parish.

“The village is virtually one large building site,” Coun Littlefair said.

He added that the developments were underway "without the appropriate infrastructure to support them” - illustrating his point by saying "the whole village has only one dog refuse bin".

An agent for applicants Linden Homes West Yorkshire said the development "presents a natural rounding off of the village”.

Coun Bernard Bateman asked if contributions from the developer to the local community - to be formalised in a s106 agreement that is yet to be signed - could include funding to upgrade the village's playground.

The developer has already committed to providing £183,546 for primary education places at the village school.

Coun Michael Harrison, who is the district and county councillor for the area, said he couldn't support the development given the volume of development around the village.

"Killinghall is a building site at the moment, and I get that eventually it won’t be a building site, but when we’re finished it’s going to be a village twice the size of when we started," he said.

"I just think there’s no way this council envisaged Killinghall would be like this at the end of the planning period...I can't support the proposal."

Towards the end of debate, Coun Nigel Simms said he would support the application if a two-storey dwelling proposed for the south-west of the site was moved back three metres so that it wouldn't overshadow an existing neighbouring bungalow.

However, councillors received technical advice that moving one dwelling even slightly could have a knock on effect which could see neighbouring buildings forced into one another and onto the road.

Councillors agreed to vote in favour of deferring the application so that the feasibility of moving the unit could be explored.

Lachlan Leeming, Local Democracy Reporter