WHARFEDALE Rugby Club is set to appeal after plans for a new pitch were rejected by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

The planning committee voted eight-six against the controversial development when it met on Tuesday.

An earlier application in 1999 was also refused.

The latest bid for planning permission for a new rugby pitch on land off Wharfeside Avenue has divided residents and members.

Among the opponents are former Wharfedale captain Charles Vyvyan and his wife, Amelia, who live in Wharfeside Avenue.

Mrs Vyvyan said: "We live 42 metres from the proposed site. My husband Charles and myself have supported the club. We would be the first to acknowledge the role it plays in the community and have not opposed other plans in the past.

"The club's success will not be affected by the refusal of this application. Other clubs have been successful with the same or less number of pitches. We wish them all the success by using the existing facilities and not expanding onto our beautiful dale."

The growing club currently fields six senior teams and numerous junior teams.

Its supporters argued that its facilities were inadequate and there was a pressing need for another pitch.

Objectors maintained that existing facilities - particularly the training and Wood Lane pitch - were not used to their full extent.

Threshfield Parish Council objected and the committee received 17 individual protests and 30 letters of support.

The crux of the matter was the visual impact that the pitch would have on the landscape.

The pitch was considered to be unnaturally flat for the setting and there were concerns about further development on the site.

The club confirmed it would enter into a legal agreement restricting such development and that it would remove the posts and corner flags during the closed season.

The planning report concluded: "It is clear the club plays a significant and positive role in the community. However, the prop-osed site is not considered suitable - it is highly conspicuous, in open countryside and widely visible in views from across the valley.

"It is not considered that the benefits to the club would outweigh the need to conserve the natural beauty of the national park."

A spokesman for Wharfedale Rugby Club said: "We have tried to buy other land on the same side of the avenue but have not had the budget to do so."

Chairman of the club's development committee Gordon Brown said after the meeting: "At a time when most clubs are working hard just to maintain their position, Wharfedale is almost unique in needing to expand its facilities.

"The new pitch was to take the strain off the training pitch which suffers badly from over use in the second half of the season.

"The decision is an outrage and flies in the face of logic. We have put a tremendous amount of effort and money into the application and although this is a set back it is not the end.

"We shall go to appeal, and we are confident that sanity will prevail in the end."