Greyfriars UK has described the rejection of its plans for a multi-million pound extension to a mushroom site in North Yorkshire as a “temporary setback”, as it waits for planning permission on a new site to come through within eight weeks.

The fresh produce supplier had wanted to build a mushroom growing shed, staff building and package treatment plant at its site in Wath, near Ripon, in order to grow more mushrooms and cut imports.

But Harrogate Borough Council refused to grant planning permission, citing concerns over traffic and the large scale of the development.

In a report to the planning committee, a council officer said: "The sheer scale, size and mass of the proposed buildings, their design, shape and colour and associated aprons, roadways, lighting, planting and lack of parking are not well designed, not in keeping and not in scale with its location."

Charles Merson, Greyfriars's operations director, told FPJ: “The situation is that we have a fall-back site that we should have planning permission for within eight weeks, which is five miles down the road. This is a temporary setback, we have not been deterred.

“Harrogate Borough Council has wasted five months of my time, having led us to believe that it would be supportive of our application.

“The new site will represent a £4 million investment and might even be bigger than the first plans we submitted.”

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