The new pods at Bainbridge Ings. Photo: Yorkshire Dales NPA

The new pods at Bainbridge Ings. Photo: Yorkshire Dales NPA

Planners in the Yorkshire Dales have agreed to take enforcement action against the operators of a camping and caravanning site.

The national park authority said pods built at Bainbridge Ings near Gayle are ‘alien features’.

Its planning committee refused retrospective consent for the structures and gave the owners three months to remove the unauthorised pods and associated hard standings and fences.

An authority spokesperson said: “Planning permission had been granted for a small circle of curved pods, which would have echoed the site’s former main use as a tented camp site.

“However, pods of a larger size and with a completely different design, style and form have been installed.”

The planning officer’s report on the development at Bainbridge Ings said: “The pods appear as wholly alien features within the landscape that detract from the appearance of the site and the immediate area.

“They have no reference or sympathy with local building traditions or natural features within the area.”

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority member John Blackie, who is also chairman of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council, told the planning meeting on Tuesday that the pods which had been installed were ‘abominations’.

Bainbridge Ings caravan and campsite lies to the south of Gayle Lane about half a mile from the centre of Gayle, to the east of the Wensleydale village. It is a long established caravan and camping site which includes areas for tents, static caravans and touring caravans.

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