CONTROVERSIAL plans to create a new travellers site in a village near Selby have been withdrawn by Selby District Council.

The proposed 15-pitch site, at Burn Airfield, would effectively double the 12-pitch site already there, at an estimated cost of £940,000. But local residents have long been unhappy with the plans, as the village had been ruled out after earlier attempts to identify a location.

The council withdrew the plans on Friday, and resubmitted an amended planning application for the site on Monday, although the information is not expected to be available to the public until the end of this week.

A statement released by the council blamed the withdrawal on a certificate which needed to be served by the authority on the lessee of the land, which allows them to review and respond to the application, but had not been issued by the council.

In resubmitting the application, the authority has also “taken the opportunity to address a number of issues raised during the initial consultation”.

But Graham Rawlings, from local opposition group Burn Against New Site (BANS), said: “It is an application which was doomed to failure in our opinion. Why they withdrew the old one and resubmitted it, I don’t know. But we suspect it would be rejigged so the new application is different to the old one. I suppose it’s changing the goalposts slightly.”

However, more than 150 comments, objections and messages of support from the original plans would not be carried over to the new submission, which means all residents or concerned parties would need to file their opinions to the council for a second time.

Mr Rawlings said: “We think one of the reasons behind it is that they hope there will be fewer letters of objection because people will forget about it, but we will do everything we can to remind people they need to object if they feel strongly about it.

“Burn was always the wrong site and will always be the wrong site. It was an easy site to buy. This alone was the attraction. If SDC review the application and resubmit it with changes, we will again take up the fight.”

A spokeswoman for Selby District Council said in addition to the problem with the certificate, “there is also further information about drainage, contaminated land and the National Planning Policy Framework”, which led to the withdrawal.

The spokeswoman also said a report into searches of the site for wartime munitions had also been submitted with the new proposals. The application has so far cost £3,080, and was expected to go before the planning committee on July 10.

Regarding the previous objections not automatically being carried over to the new application, she said: “We are writing to all individuals and organisations who have responded to date and asking them if they give permission for their comments to be transferred to the new application. This will include a free postal address.”