SEMI-derelict Craven District Council-owned garage sites are to be replaced with new homes in High Bentham and Ingleton.

Councillors approved plans for two detached bungalows off Lakeber Drive, High Bentham, and six affordable flats and apartments off Burnmoor Crescent, Ingleton.

Planning committee members heard that residents close to the Lakeber Drive garages had in some cases adopted parts of the site, putting up gateways, and were opposed to the proposals.

Ward councillor Coun Lin Barrington (Ind) said she had contacted residents in 2012 suggesting that they get together and buy the garages to stop them from being developed, but that had not been successful.

She commented that children played in the area, but she could see no alternative but for the site to be developed.

Coun David Ireton (Cons) asked for clarification that the Ingleton homes would always remain affordable because of a desperate need in the area.

He also suggested that the council had failed in its duty to keep the garages in a useable state, leaving no alternative but to redevelop the land.

“It is a pity when any local authority lets its property get into such a state,” he said.