THE owner of a listed building faces a fine of up to £20,000 for altering the inside of his property without planning consent from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

The decision was made by the authority at a recent planning committee meeting after Michael Myers applied for retrospective planning permission for work carried out at Angram Farm, Halton Gill.

The vote by the narrowest of margins has since stirred up a hornets' nest of anger amongst members of the national park and the parish meeting opposed to the decision.

In March environmental officer Graham Darlington told members of the planning committee that Mr Myers had allegedly removed certain timbers, internal stone flags, a fireplace, mullions, sills and lintels as well as much evidence to the original layout of the first and loft floor areas.

Mr Darlington said he felt considerable damage had been caused to the special character of the building and recommended prosecution.

Now Mr Myers, together with his wife Mary, whose family have owned the house for many years, could face a fine which they cannot afford.

However both claim the allegations are not correct as the house had had many changes since it was first built and no-one really knows exactly how it was.

"Mr Darlington has been guessing how the house looked before. When we started work on it around 10 years ago there were only a few flags on the floor in two of the rooms, all the other floors had already been concreted. We just renewed the concrete to put in a damp proof course because the house was so damp," he said.

He added that the beams were replaced as they had fallen down anyway because they were so rotten. He replaced them with reclaimed ones as near to the old ones as possible.

He told the Herald that the two fireplaces which had been taken out were just the ranges which were beyond repair and dated back only to the 1950s. The original surrounds were to be kept and the ranges kept in case anyone wanted any bits for spares.

Several of the national park members who voted against prosecution are now trying to get the decision revoked at the next available planning meeting.

One is Coun Stephen Butcher, of Rylstone.

He told the Herald he was appalled with the decision to prosecute particularly as it was such a narrow margin with several abstentions and several other members unable to attend the meeting.

"This isn't a big company out to make money by renovating old buildings to sell; this is an ordinary man who has been doing his best over the years to preserve the building. He has only been able to do bits when he could afford it and certainly isn't the type who could afford to pay such a hefty fine," said Coun Butcher.

Coun John Blackie, of Hawes, was equally dismayed with the vote.

"There should be the clearest possible mandate for action, not something as close as nine votes to eight. A decision like this should be as unanimous as possible," he said.

Halton Gill parish meeting chairman, Anthea Cowan, whose own father-in-law had once occupied the house, claimed Mr Myers was being "victimised".

She said the meeting had supported him in his retrospective planning application saying that the house prior to 1990 was in a very bad condition making it virtually inhabitable. It said the alterations had been made in the spirit of the listing to a high standard.

After the decision to prosecute Mr Myers, she wrote to Heather Hancock, chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

In her letter she questioned the decision to punish someone for carrying out necessary internal work. She suggested the national park could have done more to advertise the restrictions placed on listed buildings so owners knew what they could and could not do.

"He had carried out most of the renovations before receiving the notice about listed buildings in 1996."

This was an aspect which Coun Blackie also felt strongly about.

At the last planning meeting he suggested owners of such buildings be given such information on a regular basis as the buildings tended to change hands often. Details should also be put on the website to make them more accessible.

Head of planning for the national park authority, Peter Watson, reiterated the park's view on the matter.

"Regulations surrounding listed buildings are the same across the country. It is not something individual to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This is a case where someone has changed the interior of a listed building without consent."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.