SKIPTON councillors have unanimously opposed plans to build 140 new homes at Hawbank Field at the edge of town.

A meeting of the town council's planning committee voted to raise several objections to the scheme after hearing concerns by residents of roads close to the proposed site.

They included fears that roads including Greenacres would become rat runs by residents of the new estate trying to avoid the traffic snarl-up at the bottom of The Bailey.

Residents, who included some annoyed by the last minute change of venue of the meeting - which had been due to take place at the town hall but was switched to the Swadford Centre because of a clash with the Kex Gill road alignment consultation - also raised concerns about pressure on schools, doctors surgeries and dentists, all leading to the destruction of the quiet market town.

Tony Mills, of Long Meadows, said if the Hawbank scheme went ahead there would be an 'almighty snarl-up' of traffic trying to get into the town centre by The Bailey.

"It won't take them long to work out the easiest route to take will be through Greenacres, this will be a disaster for the Greenacre estate, " he said.

Councillor Jonathan Kerr, who proposed that the town council object to the scheme, said he was appalled by initial comments by the highways authority to the proposals - especially with outline planning permission already in place for another large scale development at 'pig field' on the same entrance into the town.

"The Bailey is chock-a-block at peak times and this will leave Skipton gridlocked," he said.

Cllr Kerr added it was his opinion that the highways authority seemed to think gridlock was a nice system of traffic calming.

"It's just not good enough and things could be done to make things run more smoothly, there could be a roundabout onto the bypass," he said.

Cllr Kerr also raised issues about the design of the proposed homes, and that everything ought to be done to avoid them looking like a 'Brookside' estate.

He also urged his fellow councillors to challenge the planning authority - Craven District Council - on whether it had received a definitive figure from central government on the number of new homes it was required to allow to be built every year.

"Developers will keep on building and selling the houses because a large number of people want to live in Skipton. If we keep going along on market forces, we will just keep on going until Skipton is full. We have to get a stop to this," he said.

The outline application by the Pegasus Group is looking to establish the principle of development, with access onto the A6131. The application will be decided by Craven District Council, and if approved, will be followed at a later date by a full 'reserved matters' application. The council is also considering a reserved matters application by Miller Homes for the corner site 'Pig Field' at the junction of Skipton Road and Harrogate Road, close to the Hawbank site. Outline planning permission for the corner site was given last year for 83 homes, and has now been reduced to 73, including 29 (40 per cent) affordable.