SIX businesses at The Courtyard, Settle, have won a planning battle to erect advertising signs alongside the A65.

Officers at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority had recommended the application be refused on the grounds that the signs would be too large and would be visually harmful due to their alien and commercial appearance in a rural area.

But Simon Robinson, a partner in the Dalesbred bespoke soft furnishing company, said good signage was needed to attract motorists to leave the fast-moving A65.

He told the authority's planning committee: “At no point when we were granted planning permission for retail did we realise how difficult it would be to get permission for sufficient signage to make the businesses work.

"This is now our fourth application and the signs proposed now are 33 per cent smaller than any previous application in order to find a compromise.

“I really believe every business here is at risk if we don’t have signage that is large enough and clear enough to encourage people to stop and shop. The planning officers would like us to have smaller signage which only says Courtyard on it and doesn’t tell you what is there.

“We feel that we are being heavily penalised for wanting to work, create jobs, and live in the park.”

Mr Robinson accepted that the temporary signs needed to be replaced with good quality signage of a sensitive nature and the committee members were impressed by the designs shown at the meeting.

Proposing acceptance, Carl Lis said: “We need to do everything we possibly can to support these businesses. I can’t believe we are even considering turning this application down.”

The majority of members agreed, with some pointing out that smaller signage could be dangerous as motorists would have difficulty reading it. It was also accepted that the A65 was a busy commercial highway and could not be compared to a more rural location.

Settle Town Council supported the application and the Yorkshire Dales Society had withdrawn its objection, partly on the understanding that all the temporary and individual retailers’ signs, flags and bunting would be removed if approval was given for the new signage.

As there was just one abstention to the majority vote in favour, Richard Graham, head of development management, said the decision would not be referred back to the October meeting.

Report by ARC News Service