A CONTROVERSIAL new development which could have forced Threshfield children to walk to school along a busy main road may be shelved, following the intervention of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA).

The new road scheme had been approved by North Yorkshire County Council but the park authority opened talks with a local landowner who has given provisional consent to allow a footpath to the school to be built across his fields.

The YDNPA is now asking the county council to open negotiations with the farmer.

Meanwhile, the authority has decided to go to court for the second time over alleged unauthorised building work carried out at the listed Catholes Farm in Sedbergh.

Last year, the YDNPA prosecuted the owners of the farm for the demolition of a listed stonewall. The owners then sold up - but the new occupants now face prosecution for re-building the wall with unapproved materials.