Could '˜forgotten clause' give Yorkshire villagers the edge in phone mast battle?

Residents in the fishing village of Staithes, outraged at plans to build in the field of a sports club, took the case to court to demand that title deeds for the sale of the land be made available for public viewing.

And, as it emerges there is a decades’ old clause which curtails certain developments, they are calling on the club to put a halt to the plans.

“We’re not against a phone mast, this is about where it is,” said chairman of the committee which was set up in opposition to the scheme, Marion Wright.

“The mast needs to be put somewhere else. There are plenty of places outside the village that we would not object to.”

Planning permission for the phone mast in the grounds of the Staithes Athletic and Social Club was agreed by the North York Moors National Park earlier this year.

More than 70 residents had sent letters opposing the build of the 12.5 metre high mast with antennas and dishes, claiming it would spoil views and be only metres away from the primary school and homes at the top of the village.

The club hopes to lease the land to Shared Access for the mast, but a row broke out with neighbours over the potential impact on their homes.

The ensuing battle, so heartfelt local councillors have said that it has “torn the village apart”, resulted in residents preparing to move and split the community.

“It really is tearing the village apart,” ward councillor John Nock said in an interview with The Yorkshire Post in March after the plans were passed.

“People are leaving as they can’t bear to live here any more. It has caused a deep division.”

The continuing row over the mast and the planning application has brought about a divisive storm in the historic village, residents have added, with hostility brewing in the normally close knit community.

Anonymous letters have been circulating, criticising the plans and calling for the club to say no its “forty pieces of silver” over what it’s called a “finger of contempt at the village”.

“Our village needs a mast but never at the cost of the heart of the village,” the letters say, denouncing the mast an as “ugly blight” on this picturesque landscape.

Solicitors were brought in by the Staithes Initiative Group and the residents took the club to county court, securing the title deeds from when the land was sold by Scarborough Borough Council in 1972, going on to Northallerton to further research details of the sale in the county archives. And, as it emerges there is a covenant within these deeds forbidding any kind of development bar a club extension or change of use of the land, they are hopeful the plans can be dropped.

“Everybody feels very strongly about this,” said Mrs Wright. “We hope that the mast can be sited somewhere else, away from a residential area. “The whole community is prepared to pull together to fix this.”

Campaigners were preparing for further debate ahead of a general meeting hosted by the club last night, as they call on decision makers to re-think their proposals. Members of the Staithes Athletic and Social Club declined to comment when approached by The Yorkshire Post.