FINAL approval for the building of 105 homes off North Parade in Skipton is expected to be given by Craven District Council next week.

More than three years after outline planning permission was approved, the fully detailed, reserved matters application is recommended for approval at Monday's planning committee meeting.

Councillors will hear protracted negotiations with developer, Keyhaven Homes, regarding the amount of affordable housing in the development, has led to the delay.

The site, to the east of North Parade and south of Simbach Close, is currently pasture land and adjoins a play area owned and managed by Skipton Town Council, which stands to gain more than half-a-million pounds from the sale of a strip of land to access the site.

The original outline consent was for 114 homes, a retail unit and Multi Use Games Area (MUGA). The reserved matters application omitted the shop and reduced the number of houses to 110, which has now been reduced further to 105.

It will include a mixture of one-bedroom apartments, and one to four-bedroom houses, of which 32 – or 30 per cent – will be classed as affordable.

The council, which normally requires 40 per cent of housing developments to be affordable, has agreed the reduction following extensive negotiations and an independent financial viability appraisal.

But Skipton ward councillor, Andy Solloway, said he is not happy with the reduction.

He added: "Not only, yet again, do we have a developer wanting to build on green fields, in an area where the infrastructure is under a lot of strain from housing developments elsewhere in Skipton, but yet again a developer is now trying to wriggle out of providing 'so-called' affordable housing, too."

The council sent out 94 letters to properties in Greatwood Avenue, North Parade, Simbach Close and Hollingworth Close about the application.

It received feedback from nine, including Skipton Civic Society, commenting on the choice of red brick as a building material in some of the houses, pressure on local services and the inability of Cawder Bridge to cope with additional traffic.

Concerns were also raised about highways issues, but North Yorkshire County Council – the highways authority – has nit raised any objections. It has, however, suggested speed reducing 'tables', larger parking bays and the addition of visitor parking.