Dales residents are pleading with planners to "save our view" and refuse a staff housing development for two Dales inns, but the owner says the scheme would provide "vital" accommodation.

Residents and Charles Cody, the owner of the Charles Bathurst Inn and the Punch Bowl Inn in Arkengarthdale, near Richmond, are at loggerheads over the scheme. National Park Authority planners are recommending the scheme is approved, and the authority meets on Tuesday, July 11 to decide.

Householders warn the development will obscure views of historic Scar House, and is on a greenfield site on redundant school playing fields. They argue the staff accommodation could be built next to the CB Inn and not in open countryside.

The Duke of Norfolk, who owns Scar House, said in his objection: “The Dales' natural beauty and iconic views should be preserved.”

Martin Stephenson, who owns "The Retreat" opposite the site, said: “Many genuine objections appear to have been dismissed, in favour of supporting a local business. We all want our local pubs to thrive, but it is possible to expand the business, without the need to destroy the beauty of Arkengarthdale. If a £1m investment in staff accommodation is truly viable, there is plenty of room to build it next to the pub.”

Darlington and Stockton Times: The CB Inn, Arkengarthdale

Jane Ellis, whose property is next to the plot, added: “It’s important that the Planning Committee listen to our parish councillors, because they are our local voice. They understand the potential impact of such a development and they are fully aware of the strength of feeling in relation to protecting Arkengarthdale and the public view. We live in a conservation area and we rely on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to conserve it, for the residents, visitors and future generations.”

Mr Cody said the plans have been revised to include two units for single people, two one-bedroom apartments for couples, communal space with cooking and laundry centre and a two-bedroom manager’s house.

“Lack of affordable housing drives both the shortage of young people able to remain to work, and the ability of those from away wishing to take up employment," he said. "Were this to be addressed, the community would be enriched with new blood, it would help to retain those families who are currently forced to move away, and strengthen the local economy, breathing life into an ‘aging dale'.”

Darlington and Stockton Times: The Punch Bowl Inn at Low Row

He said Brexit and Covid had complicated the problems further. Mr Cody had originally gifted the land to Arkengarthdale School for playing fields, but it was returned to him after the school was closed.

Planners say the scheme does not fit easily with many policies in the local plan but it is the expansion of an existing building which with 46 staff employs a relatively large number of people.

They add: “With the closure of the school the former playing fields no longer have a community function which underpinned its designation as an important open ppace. It is therefore considered that Local Plan Policies C9 and C13 carry little weight and are outweighed by the social and economic arguments in favour of the development.

“These benefits are further considered to outweigh the less than substantial harm caused to the conservation area and the application is therefore recommended for conditional approval, subject to a s106 agreement retricting occupancy to the businesses at the CB Inn and Punch Bowl Inn.”