FIVE new affordable houses for local people have been given the go-ahead in the Yorkshire Dales despite the threat of a legal challenge.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority gave full planning permission for the new dwellings in Bainbridge village, near Hawes. The houses are to be built on a field behind the Grade-II listed Rose and Crown pub by Horn Blower Developments Ltd. The company recently constructed eight homes on a nearby site.

The YDNPA said solicitors acting for a small group of residents trying to block the development said the homes would not be wholly affordable.

However, national park authority members rejected the claim. They approved the drawing up of a legal agreement to ensure the new homes could be sold – and re-sold – at a price no greater than 70 per cent of their open market value, making them affordable in perpetuity.

YDNPA deputy chairman Ian McPherson said: “These are going to be quality, discounted homes for local people – just what we need in the national park.

"Our policy permits small-scale development that is adjacent to village boundaries where the housing will be 100 per cent affordable and meets an otherwise unmet local need.”

YDNPA member Yvonne Peacock proposed approval of the five new homes. She said affordable houses were needed to help keep families in the park, and added that local people would get first refusal.

"Anybody wishing to buy one of the homes will need to be working here, or have been resident in the national park for three years, or have lived here for at least ten years previously," she said. "The homes will be made available to people in Bainbridge parish first, then to adjoining parishes.

"The threat of a legal challenge just highlights how difficult it is to get new houses built even when the authority, the local parish council and most of the community are in support of them."