THE stalemate at Hellifield Station has reached unacceptable levels, the parish council heard.

Villagers want to see their station either developed into a heritage centre, sold to someone who will develop it, or the owner made to pay back all the grants paid in the past, the parish council heard.

District councillor David Crawford said the Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company wanted to complete the station development to turn it into a visitor attraction.

However, it is understood that site owner David Smith, of the West Coast Railway Hellifield Ltd Company, will not negotiate, so there is a stalemate.

It was planned to turn the station into a major visitor attraction with steam trains and engines on view. In 1995 a grant for £500,000 was paid to build the "road to nowhere", to link the development with the A65 and for other works.

Hopes were high that the station, with its ornate Victorian canopy, would put Hellifield on the tourist map, but seven years on parish councillors say the site is "an embarrassment to Craven".

Everything came to a halt after building inspectors condemned work on the footings of an engine shed building. Then, the West Coast Railway Company began extracting ash from the site without planning permission and North Yorkshire County Council served an enforcement notice. West Coast appealed against the notice unsuccessfully.

"Is there any way we can retrieve the money from all these grants?" asked parish council chairman Coun Jeremy Sample. "Do they check up on these grants? Can they be made to do the development or sell it to someone who will?"

Coun Crawford said he would take the matter up with Craven District Council's legal team.

"This has reached a point where it is completely unacceptable to all concerned. We will see if there are any legal means to make him develop, sell or pay back monies," he added.

Glenn Sharpe, principal solicitor with North Yorkshire County Council, told the Herald the council was now considering action to make West Coast comply with the enforcement notice to regrade the hillside where the ash extraction took place and carry out planting.

He said the council had held back in case the site was sold to the Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company, but now it looked as though it was to remain in West Coast's ownership, action was being considered.

"They are in breach of an enforcement notice and strictly speaking that is a criminal offence," he said.

Craven's newly appointed head of economic development, Jonathan Kerr, is determined to progress Hellifield Station and is meeting with Mr Smith next Wednesday.

He said: "We are striving to get a solution. Hellifield councillors are quite right. Significant funding has been put into the project and the money has to have been spent appropriately. If Mr Smith does not want to redevelop it we want to pressure him to sell it to try and progress this forward."

Mr Kerr is also meeting with Yorkshire Forward and the Friends of the Settle to Carlisle Railway to discuss the matter.

The Herald tried unsuccessfully to contact Mr Smith this week.