A PLEA for more affordable homes for growing families is being made by Bentham Town Council.

Concerns about a future lack of three and four-bedroom dwellings in the North Yorkshire market town were raised by councillors as they discussed the draft local plan for Craven.

The planning blueprint for the next 15 years has yet to be finalised but it suggests 87.4 per cent of new affordable homes built in Bentham will be one or two-bed. Only 12.6 per cent will have three or more bedrooms.

This could "trap" growing families into properties that are too small, especially if they have different sex children, feared councillors.

They also raised concerns about the complete lack of land set aside for jobs in Bentham over the coming years. By comparison, Settle has 6.7 hectares of employment land and Ingleton 2.94 hectares.

Bentham is expected to have 25 new homes per year, equating to 14.6 hectares of new housing. Settle has 10 hectares of land for new homes set aside, and Ingleton 3.2 hectares.

The new Craven Local Plan is expected to be adopted in March 2019 after approval by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.