RESIDENTS have lambasted a York-based building firm after it disregarded planning conditions intended to protect birds during the breeding season.

The breach was reported and work stopped, but now Selby District Council has varied the condition forbidding vegetation clearance between March 1 and August 31 on Moor Lane site, in Sherburn-In-Elmet.

Partridges, lapwings and skylarks have been found nesting there. Breeding birds, their eggs, nests and young are protected from disturbance under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Following the decision by councillors to vary the condition at June's planning committee, York-based Persimmon Homes can carry out clearance work on the northern part of the development, providing an ecologist has examined the site before work starts.

Barbara Wilson, 68, who lives opposite the 193-home development, said it looked like Persimmon had been rewarded for its planning breach.

"It's one of these big companies who think conditions don't apply to them," she said.

"If it was an individual, they'd have adhered to the rules. Big companies seem to think they can get away with murder."

Mrs Wilson said the police had to be called to the site to stop work. "Quite a few residents called the council, but they did nothing to stop it," she said.

She said no one had been charged for the breach, despite the 1981 Act.

Since the police called a stop to work in April, a security fence has stood around the site and no further work carried out.

Mrs Wilson said the area had taken on a lot of water recently, suggesting it was inappropriate for housing.

She said: "Foundations which were dug at the beginning of April, when we had a continuous dry spell, contained at least three feet of water by the next day, despite four loads of concrete being tipped into them.

"They have done ever since and this is at the driest part of the site."

Planning boss Coun John Mackman said each planning issue was considered on its own merits.

"I don't condone what they've done by any means, but each application has to be dealt with on its own merits," he said.

"Persimmon have had a shot across the bows, and I'm sure they'll follow the requirements that have been laid down."

He said flood risk was assessed at the planning stage by statutory consultees like the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water.

He said the council's planning enforcement section had looked at April's breach, but was a small department which had lots of cases to deal with.

A spokeswoman for Persimmon Homes declined to comment when contacted by The Press.