CAMPAIGNERS battling to prevent unwanted development on the site of Ilkley's former Middleton Hospital have suffered a blow.

A long-awaited report from an environment inspector has recommended the site should remain as a major developed site in the green belt.

The report forms part of the Harrogate Local Plan, Harrogate Council's planning blueprint for the next ten years.

Objectors, including Ilkley Parish Council, Bradford Council, the Council for the Protection of Rural England and district councillor Anne Hawkesworth, wanted the designation removed.

Those objecting told a public inquiry back in January 1998 that development on the site would cause enormous problems - including a huge increase in traffic, ruin the beauty of the site and leave Ilkley's infrastructure unable to cope with a large influx of new residents.

However, the inspector has said the policy regarding the site should not be changed. The decision has angered Coun Hawkesworth, who said: "This is extremely bad news for Ilkley, indeed it could be a disaster."

She said some development was probably inevitable but it had to be a minimal amount.

The inspector's report does state that planning policy and the site's location within an Area of Outstanding Beauty 'point towards a relatively modest redevelopment that will, when compared to what was on the site, achieve more openness, environmental improvement and less visual impact'.

Coun Kate Brown, chairman of Ilkley Parish Council, said: "The word 'modest' is slightly encouraging but the decision not to remove Middleton as a major developed site in the green belt is not good news."

Coun Brown said the parish council was now anticipating the result of a second inquiry, held 12 months ago, which would determine whether an application to build houses on the site was successful.

Both Coun Hawkesworth and Coun Brown said they would continue to fight for the future of the site.

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