A NORTH Yorkshire childcare business has finally been given the go-ahead - despite being recommended for refusal by council planning officers.

Karen Ellis and Claire Thornhill were granted planning permission to convert offices in Firthland Road, Pickering, into a daycare nursery for up to 22 children at a Ryedale District Council planning meeting last month.

Councillors overturned officers' recommendations because they said the town was crying out for the facility.

Then a neighbour, Robert Harrop, objected to the proposal and councillors were forced to reconsider the application.

But the mayor of Pickering, Coun Natalie Warriner, backed the application, telling councillors: "The objector and his family live in a large family house facing the very busy A170 which has heavy traffic flows 24/7, and the grounds of objection are noise because he intends to work nights.

"Whilst I have every sympathy with anyone trying to sleep during the day, it is a fact of life that there will be noise if you choose to live on such a busy thoroughfare."

Updated: 10:03 Wednesday, January 08, 2003