Twelve glamping pods to built on site on Yorkshire farm near where Nazi aircraft crashed during World War Two

Two of the newly approved pods will serve as “additional huts to support the use” of the site, whilst the remaining 10 will be used as holiday accommodation.

The moveable huts on wheels will have a height of 2.85m above ground level.

Planning officers highlighted the importance of “safeguarding the appearance of the rural landscape, including the setting of the National Park”.

However, it was concluded that the “self-contained nature of the site behind established hedgerows and its landscape setting” helped ensure that the proposal was acceptable.

Whitby Civic Society said it believed the location of the huts was also “the site of a WWII Heinkel crash” and it recommended advice from the Council Archaeologist.

However, no objections were raised by the archaeologist who confirmed that the WWII plane crash mentioned by the Civic Society did not take place on the site.

The archaeologist said: “The site of a German WWII aircraft is to the rear of buildings at Bannial Flat Farm and not this site.”

No objections were raised by the town council.

The holiday site is intended to be open for 365 days a year and “a minimum stay of two nights will be a condition of booking,” submitted documents state.

An attendant will be on the site every day from 8am to 5pm to manage the arrival and departure of guests, clean the huts, and manage the grounds.

Parking would be provided for up to 12 vehicles in an area to the north of the site.

According to the council, ecological surveys did not reveal any individually protected species.

However, it was recommended that the lighting plan should consider the impact on bats.

The plan was approved by the council and planning authority on Monday, February 5.

The Heinkel was one of a number of Nazi Luftwaffe aircraft that were sent to attack shipping in the North Sea in 1940. Three failed to return, among them the one that crashed at the farm after being intercepted and shot down by three Hurricanes, one of which was piloted by RAF officer Peter Townsend, who became well-known after the war as the lover of Princess Margaret.

The Heinkel was picked up by a beacon warning at Danby in the North York Moors after attacking a fishing trawler, and after flying low across Whitby, made a forced landing near the cottages at Bannial Flat Farm. It was the first enemy aircraft to crash on English soil, and a large crowd gathered around the site.

Two dead airmen had to be placed in the cottage outhouse, out of sight of the hostile onlookers, and two survivors were cared for in the farmhouse until they could be taken to hospital.

The gunner, whose legs were amputated, was visited in Whitby Hospital by Townsend, who remained friends with him and visited him in Germany in the 1960s.