SUPERMARKET chain Booths and Settle landowner Stan Jordan have teamed up to submit a foodstore plan for the town which they hope provides a compromise which all sides will find satisfactory.

The latest scheme, submitted to Craven District Council on Monday, involves combining the Bond Lane and Sowarth sites enabling a new primary school to be built with a mimimum loss of open space.

On the new plan, the foodstore building would be in the corner of Mr Jordan's land adjoining Bond Lane, and would be on two levels.

The sales area would be on the top floor with the warehouse below, and it would be served by delivery vehicles using Sowarth.

The customers' car park would be in the corner of Bond Lane field nearest to the supermarket building.

Open space would be left opposite Marshfield House and the town council's children's playground would be relocated on the site.

The new primary school would be on the Sowarth side of the field with a sports pitch, and the field would be extended into Mr Jordan's site to compensate for some of the loss of open space.

Donald Clark, consultant architect for Booths, explained that this would result in a net loss of open space of just under an acre.

"There would be a minimum loss of open space," he told the Herald.

"The land purchase from North Yorkshire County Council would enable the primary school to be built, there would be a reduction in traffic on Bond Lane, we would still run the village bus service and there would be minimum loss of industrial land.

"The compromise involves three major land holdings, Bond Lane playing field, the children's playground owned by Settle Town Council and the industrial land and buffer zone owned by Stan Jordan.

"The compromise can be achieved only with the co-operation of North Yorkshire County Council and Settle Town Council," he added.

Settle Town Council is expected to discuss the scheme at its next meeting on Monday February 2.

This week, Geoff Knights, of the Save Our Field campaign, which is opposed to building on Bond Lane, said he thought the new plan was the best compromise.

He told the Herald: "It's the best option I have seen, but it is whether Settle Town Council will opt for them moving the site of the children's playground.

"I will certainly not be against it, but I will certainly not be going around saying that I love it. I have always said that we wanted to retain the field. It is still losing part of our playing field, but it is the best compromise."

Meanwhile, North Yorkshire County Council this week put Bond Lane field - apart from the area earmarked for a school - out to informal tender. The closing date for the tender is January 29.

And in another twist, the Government announced new curbs to make it harder for education authorities to sell off school playing fields last week.

A planning inspector is to hear appeals by Booths and Yorkshire Cooperatives into earlier planning refusals for supermarkets on Bond Lane and Ashfield in April.

It is thought unlikely that this latest plan will go before Craven District Council's planning committee before the appeals are heard.

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