A company which manufactures loudspeakers is looking for a new home.

Castle Acoustics, based at Park Mill on Shortbank Road, Skipton wants to abandon a site is describes as "Dickensian".

The company, which employs 24 people, has submitted a planning application to Craven District Council to build thirteen homes on their plot, along with a landscaped area. The business' agent, John Steel, of J O Steel Consulting, said the company had been looking for an alternative base since February 2003.

He said: "For a considerable period of time they have been trying to, in discussion with Craven District Council, relocate out of the somewhat Dickensian premises they are in now."

Mr Steel said the company wanted a local, modern headquarters that did not have the "horrendous" problems for the company and other road users when technicians' lorries came to drop off materials and pick up finished goods.