OWNERS of Otley's closed Bridge End auction mart would like to see a hotel or pub on the riverside site.

Parkmount Estate Company (Allerton), Ltd says the site is ideal for a hotel, pub or shops to cater for the hundreds of houses badly served on the north side of the river.

And the company has said it will be asking Leeds planning authority what it would approve on the site.

Karl Kunz, of Parkmount, said it was certain that the site had seen its last days as a cattle market.

"It will never be a cattle market again and it will go to rack and ruin if it is left like it is. The site is very central to Otley and there are more houses on the north side of the river. We would like to see shops, a hotel or a pub - there are very few shops on that side."

Mr Kunz said with the possibility of a new Sainsbury's off Bondgate, he thought the possibility of another supermarket was out of the question.

He added that it was a distinct possibility that Parkmount would shortly be approaching Leeds City Council.

"We will approach them and ask them what they would like in the area," he said.

But Martin Sellens, principal planning officer with Leeds City Council, said although officers would be delighted to talk to Parkmount, the site was subject to certain planning restrictions.

"It is part of the definitive green belt and is also in the flood plain which are two issues straight away to deal with. "It is an important gateway into the countryside although there are buildings there at the moment that we would have to look at."

The riverside site is earmarked in the revised unitary development plan - the planning blueprint for Leeds - as green belt. Development on green belt land is difficult but not impossible. However, it does require the council to go to the Secretary of State.

l The cattle market closed last month with farmers blaming the general state of the farming industry.

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