DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott is to be asked to intervene to try and prevent any more charity shops opening in Otley.

The decision to write to the minister for transport, environment and regions, was taken after a meeting of Otley Town Council's plans sub-committee.

Councillors had discussed an application by the British Heart Foundation for permission to convert the former Boots shop at the junction of Market Place and Kirkgate into Otley's 12th charity shop.

They rejected the application on the grounds that the alterations to the frontages would not be sympathetic to the listed building.

However, they also raised concerns about the proliferation of charity shops in the town and when the chairman, Coun Phil Coyne (Lab, Ashfield), asked for permission to write to Mr Prescott, they agreed wholeheartedly.

The British Heart Foundation has applied for permission to put four non-illuminated signs of vinyl lettering on wooden boards outside the shop premises and also to alter the windows on the ground floor.

Coun Coyne said he would not want to support the application because the alterations did not reflect the architecture above the ground floor. He said: "We should query the shape and proportion of the new windows because they don't reflect those above."

"The whole point of a building's architecture is that it should be reflected all the way down to the ground level," he added.

Coun Gerard Francis, (Con, Prince Henry), said: "I think we should refuse this because it is not a sympathetic treatment of the listed building.

"Is there not anything we can do about this because the number of charity shops detracts from the viability of the town? They pay only 20 per cent of the business rates and they have a huge advantage over ordinary traders."

Coun Coyne added: "I have said that I agree with what the charities do, but I do think that there are too many of them in Otley.

"If there were 12 butchers shops in Otley I would say that there were too many of those also," he said.

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