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13
Oct
Major Beckwithshaw roundabout expansion approved as 4,000 new homes planned
Councillors have approved plans to build a new roundabout at Beckwithshaw three times the size of the current one.
North Yorkshire Council applied to build the new roundabout at Pot Bank, where Otley Road meets the edge of Moor Park estate.
The council tabled the proposal in October 2025 to cope with increased traffic caused by new housing developments in the area.
According to planning documents, the scheme is expected to cost £3.8 million to build.
The council’s strategic planning committee voted to approve the proposal at a meeting in Northallerton today (October 13).
Designs for the new roundabout at Beckwithshaw.
Mark Johnson, of Johnson Mowat Planning, which represented the council on the plans, said the roundabout had been described as "failing" in council documents almost 10 years ago and needed to be enlarged to increase capacity for the highway network.
He added that the roundabout was one of 24 junctions in Harrogate that was expected to be improved as part of section 106 commitments from three major housing sites — which amount to around £12,000 a dwelling — in the west of the town.
Mr Johnson said:
This junction was recognised in the council’s local plan background papers some 10 years ago as failing. The need to get this junction improved exists now.
Those three major strategic sites which then pay for this junction improvement have got obligations which restrict their commencement until this junction is actually sorted. The need to approve this planning application is becoming quite urgent.
The new roundabout is planned to measure 37 metres across, and the extra land required would be taken from a field immediately to the north.
Thirteen trees would need to be removed – some of which arboricultural consultants say are diseased – and would be replaced by 30 saplings of various species, not all of them native.
More than 4,000 new homes are planned for the west of Harrogate. Credit - HAPARA
The roundabout will be jointly funded by the developers of housing schemes in the west of Harrogate.
Cllr Andrew Timothy, a Liberal Democrat who represents Stray, Woodlands & Hookstone on the council and sits on the strategic planning committee, said:
I’ve sat here many times and said when we decide west of Harrogate planning applications, we need the infrastructure in place as well. I would feel like something of a hypocrite if I didn’t support this.
Councillors voted unanimously to approve the expansion of the roundabout.
West of Harrogate
The move to build the roundabout comes as the west of Harrogate is expected to see 4,000 new homes built in the coming years.
Multiple schemes are being built or awaiting planning permission in the area, including schemes on Otley Road, Whinney Lane and Yew Tree Lane.
Much of the housing was earmarked for the area in the Harrogate District Local Plan, which assessed a need for 16,077 new homes in the district up to 2035.
It means the west of Harrogate was projected to take nearly a quarter of the entire district's housing need.
However, a new North Yorkshire Local Plan, which will supersede the Harrogate plan, is currently being drawn and will identify land to accommodate new homes, jobs and associated infrastructure in the region over the next 20 years.
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