The battle to stop 17 sheltered homes being built on a field next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal in Skipton has been narrowly lost.

The £844,500 scheme by Anchor Housing Association at Roughaw Road has been given the go-ahead by Craven Council's community services committee.

The proposal was carried by just one vote after the committee turned the scheme down last October because it was on a green field site.

But Craven planners later ruled there were no planning objections to the project and it was sent back to the community services committee to be reconsidered.

Pensioner Sheila Parker, whose home in Roughaw Road overlooks the site, said: "The decision is very disappointing. We are losing another green field.

"We lost our view about ten years ago when sheltered housing was built opposite us and now other people are to lose theirs.

"I fear that this won't be the end and they will allow building on another field further along. We have had enough in this area."

Councillor Tony Kennedy (Lib/Dem West Craven) said: "This development will free up other homes now occupied by elderly people which would be more suitable for families."

A Craven Council spokesman said some elderly people were living in homes which would be more suitable for families.

If elderly people could be encouraged to move into the sheltered bungalows, it would increase the stock of family homes.

He said other sites in Skipton - in Burnside Crescent, Marton Street and East Castle Street - had been looked at but were considered not suitable. "None are ideally suited for the purpose nor are they immediately available," he added.

An Anchor spokesman said the association had been granted £425,000 by the Housing Corporation towards the £844,500 total cost of building the 17 bungalows.

"This is a considerable investment to meet the housing needs of the people in Craven as imaginatively as possible," he said.

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