A DEVELOPER has applied for permission to turn a shop unit on the site of a converted club into a flat.

But Hambleton Planning officers are urging councillors to refuse the plan.

The shop unit at Elders, in Northallerton is part of a conversion of 14 flats and two shops from previous club premises.

Construction work was finished last year but despite lengthy marketing the owner says he has been unable to lease one of the retail units and has applied for a chance of use to residential.

But the site is within the Northallerton conservation area and because of the narrow width of the alleyway and the proximity of neighbouring buildings officers say the new flat “would have a limited outlook and a gloomy and oppressive living environment.”

A similar planning application to convert the single-storey outbuilding opposite the flat into residential accommodation was dismissed on appeal in August 2013.