CONTENTIOUS plans to turn a disused hotel in a North Yorkshire village into an outdoor education centre for school children have been put on hold following a fiery public meeting.

About 100 people squeezed into a classroom at Rosedale Abbey Primary School on Monday evening to discuss the future of the Milburn Arms Hotel, in the village of Rosedale Abbey.

The meeting was called after it was discovered the hotel's owner planned to hand over the listed building to the Havelock Academy, a boarding school in Grimsby.

The building, which is owned by businessman David Ross, stopped trading as a hotel in 2008, and has now been offered to the academy as an outdoor education centre.

The aim of the meeting was to give residents a chance to quiz Nick Teagle, David Ross's estate manager, and Nicholas O'Sullivan, the principal of the Havelock Academy, about the plans.

Linda Blackburne, a parish councillor for Rosedale Abbey, said: “The residents were incredibly hostile towards them and by the end of the meeting Mr O'Sullivan was forced to concede that 'it could not be done in the teeth of hostility of the local community'.

“He was asked whether he would now be putting in a planning application for change of use and he said he would have to go away and consider that.”

Coun Blackburne said the Milburn Arms had been “the heart of community” before it closed 18 months ago.

She said: “It was like a community centre for everybody in Rosedale to meet. It was where people had their christenings, their 21st birthdays, their weddings and their wakes.

“The residents have said they don't mind these deprived children from Grimsby coming to Rosedale, but they shouldn't be using this historic hotel which has such an iconic history as a bunkhouse.

“David Ross has got lots of buildings on his estate that could be used as accommodation for these young people. Using the hotel would deprive the community of a much-loved hotel and community centre.”