A MAJOR development plan for Settle – including more than 100 new homes – was withdrawn this week before it was due to be decided by Craven planners.

The application by Skipton Properties for land next to its completed Falcon Park estate, off Ingfield Lane, was recommended for refusal at Monday's Craven District Council planning committee meeting.

Councillors had been recommended to reject the hybrid application, which included detailed plans for 65 homes and outline plans for a further 'residential development' off Skipton Road, because the scheme failed to include a single affordable property.

In the report to committee, officers noted Skipton Properties had made an offer of 20 per cent affordable housing at the site – half of what the council asks for in major developments – but with only 'limited detail or justification'.

Meanwhile, a six-day public inquiry due to be held in January next year to hear an appeal lodged by Skipton Properties against the council's refusal of its original application for the site will now not take place.

Skipton Properties had appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against the council's refusal of the scheme in February, which differed from the latest scheme in that it included industrial units, but has now withdrawn the appeal. The application had originally been recommended for approval by officers, with the condition the scheme include 40 per cent affordable homes.

No date has been set for the latest application to go before the planning committee.