Aysgarth crafts training centre approved despite objections

Plans to turn a disused Yorkshire Dales chapel into a heritage crafts centre are to go ahead despite objections.

The parish council had expressed concerns over proposals to convert Aysgarth Methodist Church, saying the centre was not wanted or needed.

But owner Rebecca Watkins told the National Park Authority's planning committee it would meet numerous environmental and social needs.

Ms Watkins said she wanted to "empower the next generation".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the committee's members heard that Ms Watkins was the founder of Dream Heritage, a group which transformed buildings into community assets.

She told the committee she had bought the former church to use as a not-for-profit educational centre.

Ms Watkins told the meeting the centre would meet several needs, including that of "the wider Dales community and more regionally the community of the north of England".

She added the venture needed a live-in caretaker, using 30% of the building domestically, to make it viable.

"My aim is to empower the next generation to be catalysts for positive change, saving their heritage and community," said Ms Watkins.

However, the meeting heard that Aysgarth Parish Council had raised major objections to the plan and claimed Ms Watkins had not sought the views of the local community.

The authority's cultural heritage member champion Libby Bateman told the meeting that people with heritage skills were needed in the area, highlighting concerns over church repairs.

But Mrs Bateman said: "I am concerned about the parking. I think everybody will be concerned about the parking.

"It isn't optimal what's happening at the moment in parking, but they have put a traffic management plan together and have explained where people can park."

Committee member and Upper Dales councillor Yvonne Peacock told the meeting that if the proposal was approved, there would be nothing to tie the building's future use to the not-for-profit group.

Mrs Peacock added that the area already offered training in traditional skills, such as dry stone walling.

She added, though, that the biggest concern over the proposal for the former church was the possible worsening of the village's parking issues, which she said were already so serious they were raised at every parish council meeting.

Before members voted in support of the proposal, Ms Watkins told the meeting she accepted that any use of the building would be restricted due to it having no off-street parking.

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