CAMPAIGNERS are keeping up the pressure over proposals for a huge extension to an industrial estate, claiming it will destroy their community.

After a public inquiry into Hambleton District Council's local plan, residents have until November 9 to have their say on modifications.

While the council has abandoned its proposal to “safeguard” ten hectares of land at at Aiskew Moor, near Bedale, to expand Leeming Bar Industrial Estate, residents want the authority to reconsider its plan to build over a further 20 hectares there, largely to facilitate the growth of a single business, soft drinks giant Cawingredients.

Campaigners have been protesting through the Leeming Bar Action Group. Robert Winchester, who moved up from Kent with his wife to escape development, said: "We thought we would have a nice place here. This will bring noise, traffic and lighting that comes with industry and will have an enormous impact not only on the residents of our village but also the wildlife who will lose their habitat and the Wensleydale Railway that runs past the proposed site.

"Hambleton District Council has already issued a public spaces protection order in restricted areas of Leeming Bar to stop large lorries parking on the roadside instead of using the existing two service stations in the area. We already have industrial estates nearby and accept this but this new development would destroy the whole area. There is other land available such as opposite on the other side of the new bypass where there are no houses or land on the existing industrial site that's been for sale for at least five years."

Mr Winchester added: "This whole development would ruin the quality of life for the residents in the area. The land at the moment is arable and provides Leeming Bar with a piece of countryside, so why destroy it for just one company?"

Cawingredients, which employs about 400 staff at the site, has said there is “an absolute necessity” to secure more land for the development of the business and enable both its production facilities to be managed as a single site.

However action group spokesman Dr Matt Sawyer said campaigners do not believe the land allocation is legal.

"The National Planning Policy Framework expressly says that the best and most versatile agricultural land should not be used if a lower grade of land is available, and lower grade land is available in this case, in a suitable location, and perfectly sufficient in size," he said.

The consultation into Hambleton's local plan can be accessed online at consult.hambleton.gov.uk