PLANS to demolish a garden centre near Selby and create a housing development have been turned down.

Selby District Council has rejected proposals which could have seen 23 new homes built on the site occupied by Selby Garden and Pet Centre, at Osgodby.

The Hull Road scheme outlined a development including six two-bedroom, six three-bedroom and six four-bedroom properties and five five-bedroom homes, with the applicants saying it would ensure the “character of the village” was preserved.

They also said they understood the land was being looked at by the council as a possible future location for a travellers’ site, which meant it should be regarded as “suitable for residential development”, and that it would allow “much-needed affordable housing” to be created.

But North Yorkshire County Council’ environmental services officers said they could not support the application unless their concerns over access arrangements to the site were dealt with.

Barlby and Osgodby Parish Council had said the garden centre was “considered to be an asset to the village” and it believed the proposals fell outside the development limits for the village. The decision is the second time plans to create houses at the site have been refused by the authority’s planners, with a previous application to build 13 homes being thrown out in 2008 and a subsequent appeal also failing.