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Plans for a motorway service station off the A1(M) have been formally approved more than a 20 years after it was first proposed.
North Yorkshire Council has granted planning permission for the Vale of York service station at Kirby Hill, near Boroughbridge, despite claims that unresolved legal questions remain over the scheme.
The services will provide parking for 364 cars, 90 HGVs, 18 coaches, caravans and motorcycles, together with fuel filling stations, a drive-through coffee shop and amenity building.
Councillor Robert Windass said the scheme would ruin "prime agricultural land" and stood by previous comments describing the scheme as the "rape of the countryside".
"We're going to put a petrol filling station that is not particularly required. There is one just down the road," he added.
Gareth Owens, chair of the Kirby Hill Residents Against Motorway Services group, questioned whether the application could be lawfully determined as plans had since changed.
"Land east of the A1, intended to return to agriculture, now contains permanent motorway service infrastructure.
"Additional best and most versatile agricultural land is permanently lost. The motorway bridge is higher, as is the elevated dumb-bell roundabout nearest Kirby Hill.
"The site drainage strategy and the number of surface water lagoons has changed. Yet members are still asked to rely on the outline environmental statement," he said.
But Nick Roberts, agent for applicant Welcome Break, described the issues raised by the campaigners as "red herrings".
"Their claims do not withstand any scrutiny," he said, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
'Deeply disappointing'
Several councillors said they did not like the plans but could see no reasons to disagree with the officer's recommendation to approve the plans.
Councillor Andy Brown said the committee was in a "ridiculous position" regarding the environmental features of the scheme.
He said: "Solar panels on green fields was the proposal for the previous application, which we were recommended to vote for.
"Then we look at an application for a petrol station without a single solar panel, without any meaningful discussions about whether they're possible.
"And we have to wave it through on that ground because there's no legal basis on which we can insist on common sense, so that's deeply disappointing."
The application was approved by nine votes to five with one abstention.
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