PLANS to create commercial fishing lakes in a historic part of the Yorkshire Wolds are to be decided next week.

But the proposals have been roundly criticised by a Ryedale District Council planner, who has recommended they should be thrown out.

The applicant behind the plans wants to dig four commercial fishing lakes, two car parks with a total of 70 spaces and a reception building on a section of grassland at Pocklington Lane End, in Leavening, near Malton.

But council planning officer Paul Simpson has recommended they should be refused because they were "inappropriate" and "obtrusive".

In a report to councillors, who meet on Tuesday to debate the scheme, he said the proposed commercial angling site was near Mount Ferrant - a motte and bailey castle of historic significance.

He said: "The proposed development is significant with a site area of 3.4 hectares, is in a particularly prominent and historic location, and is bisected by a Green lane with public access. The site may also have ecological significance.

"The character and appearance of the Yorkshire Wolds is well known nationally, locally and possibly internationally and verges on being iconic.

"The presence of the Yorkshire Wolds has resulted from specific historic and geological influences.

"The importance of this special landscape is acknowledged by its designation as an Area Of High Landscape Value in the Ryedale Local Plan.

"The site is semi-natural in appearance with some evidence of some quarrying. However, as part of the wider picture, the site is a prominent and important part of the Wolds escarpment.

"The applicants have submitted a landscape assessment with the application which confirms the importance of the site in landscape terms and confirms that the site does not readily lend itself to the form of development proposed.

"The application does nothing to promote the conservation of the historic landscape or the setting of Mount Ferrant. Again, the proposal is considered alien in the context of the existing historic landscape and detrimental to the setting of Mount Ferrant."

Northallerton-based town planners Fawcett And Fawcett, which assessed the proposal on behalf of the applicant, said the proposed angling site would include two coarse ponds, a specimen pond and a stock pond.

There would be extensive earth works so that the fishing lakes could be incorporated into existing lay-out of the ground.