Councillors have approved plans for an anaerobic digester on a farm near Sand Hutton, despite objections from local people.

JFS Gravel Pit Farm Biogas Ltd, for Gravel Pit Farm, submitted an application for a combined heat and power plant, three tanks, silage clamps and storage lagoon, along with related buildings.

The plant will process cattle and chicken manure from Gravel Pit Farm and the owners’ other farms in North Yorkshire.

An earlier application for a similar scheme on the same site was caught up in a dispute over whether it should be dealt with by Ryedale District Council or North Yorkshire County Council due to the scale of the waste involved in the process.

It was not decided in time, and is not subject to an appeal by a Government planning inspector.

Claxton and Sand Hutton Parish Council had objected to the scheme, saying it is an “industrial-scale processing plant” for power generation, which is inappropriate for land so close to two conservation villages and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

More than 85 objections were submitted to Ryedale District Council by people living in the area. People were concerned about the size of the development, additional traffic, noise, visual impact and odour levels.

Gillian Moss, who lives in Sand Hutton, said there was a great deal of concern over the way the application had been handled.

“The final insult in all of this was that the majority of councillors appeared to agree that the second application should be rejected, as they would have rejected the first application, had the decision not been taken out of their hands by the appeal,” she said.

“But, due to the consideration of the need for a decision before the appeal takes place in March, costs and likely outcome, after two hours they eventually voted, by majority, in favour of the application, with conditions.

“If this is how planning applications up and down the country are played out, then it is a total and utter disgrace.”

Members of the planning committee were told that the highways department of North Yorkshire County Council has raised no objections to the proposals and that the development was acceptable subject to a number of conditions, including receipt of a satisfactory noise assessment.