PLANS to convert a funeral director’s into a car sales garage have been approved by planners.

The former Co-Op Funeral Care branch on Golden Butts Road in Ilkley was the subject of a change of use planning application by Andrew Hudson of Airedale Motor Company that was submitted earlier this year.

The site is just yards from the former Council household waste site for Ilkley at Golden Butts – which has been shut since April.

The application says the work would see the site – which includes a car parking area, converted to vehicle display and sales.

The application points out that the site was used as a car garage in the past, but was converted to a funeral home in the early 1990s.

It adds: “The applicant now wishes to revert the premises back to a car garage for the display and sale of vehicles.

“There are many and varied property and land uses on Golden Butts Road and these are constantly changing.

“There is a large open tarmac area for parking.”

It says there would be 15 parkins spaces for the display of cars, two for staff and one for customers.

The business would open between 10am and 5pm, and operate on an appointment only basis.

Two people had objected to the plans, raising concerns about highway and pedestrian safety.

There had also been two support comments, describing the empty site as an eyesore and saying the plans would bring the prominent building back into use.

Ilkley Town Council had objected to the plans “on the grounds of increased noise disturbance and parking issues” – much of the on street parking on Golden Butts road is permit holders only.

Referring to concerns about noise disturbance, planning officers said: “It would be highly improbable that such a use would see customers coming very late into the night/early hours of the morning to formally view or test drive the vehicles.

“The hours of operation are suggested to be up until 5pm but viewings later into the evening would unlikely cause harmful disturbance to the day to day living of nearby residents.”

Approving the application, planning officers said: “The proposal would bring the site back into use and would be a form of development which would appear appropriate in this location and can be achieved without causing detrimental harm to the amenity of neighbouring residents or highway safety.”