New housing plan to be created for Harrogate district

A new Local Plan guiding where land can be used for housing and employment for decades to come is to be drawn up for North Yorkshire.

Harrogate Borough Council currently has its own Local Plan which outlines where development can take place across the district until 2035.

It is due to be reviewed by 2025 but this looks set to be scrapped because of the creation of a new unitary authority North Yorkshire Council and the abolition of Harrogate Borough Council on April 1.

North Yorkshire County Council will be recommended to approve creating a new county-wide strategy at a meeting of its executive next week.

However, a report to councillors who will decide whether to accept the recommendation says a review of the proposed Maltkiln development, which could see up to 4,000 homes built near Cattal, will continue as planned.

The new Local Plan would look ahead for a minimum of 15 years, and at least 30 years in relation to any larger scale developments, such as new settlements or significant urban extensions. It would encompass all areas of the county outside the national parks.

Cllr Carl Les, the Conservative leader of the authority, said:

“A robust Local Plan that sets out an ambitious vision and a clear framework for growth will ensure that we keep control of how and where development takes place.

“By ensuring a local focus, we can protect and enhance the quality of the places in which we live, creating sustainable economic growth and prosperous communities while safeguarding the natural and heritage assets that are such an important aspect of our county.”

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Cllr Simon Myers, executive councillor for growth and housing, said

“The plan will be vital to the new North Yorkshire Council’s ambitions to deliver sustainable economic growth, through good homes and jobs, as well as the best facilities and infrastructure for everyone who lives or works in the county.

“Planning guidance will also play a key role in meeting our ambitious targets to tackle climate change. In addition, it can support other services in meeting the needs of our many communities at a local level, taking into account everything from transport and education to housing, health and social care.”

Developer plans 24 homes in Summerbridge

Developers have lodged plans to build 24 homes in Summerbridge.

Nidderdale Estates Ltd submitted the proposal to Harrogate Borough Council to build the scheme on land at Braisty Wood off the B165.

It would see a mixture of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes built at the site, which is allocated for housing under the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-2035.

The developer said in documents submitted to the council:

“A high quality development is proposed that will sit comfortably within the village and the AONB setting. 

“The design and detail will build upon the qualities found within the local vernacular, creating a development with a sense of identity.”

Harrogate Borough Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

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Business Breakfast: Experienced solicitor returns to Harrogate law firm

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal

A Harrogate law firm has welcomed back an experienced conveyancing solicitor to the company.

Liz Webster has returned to LCF Law, where she last worked in 2012.

She said:

“Having started out as a legal executive more than 24 years ago, I worked at firms in Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford before qualifying as a solicitor in 2007 and then becoming a partner at the Wakefield-based firm where I started out.

“I have taken two career breaks to travel and worked for LCF Residential in between but having settled back in Yorkshire, I was keen to return to the firm permanently. The ethos at LCF Residential is unparalleled and the team are first-rate.”

Julie Davis, a director at LCF Residential, said:

“We are thrilled to have Liz back. Despite the ever-changing political landscape, the housing market has remained buoyant, with lots of transactions.”

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Harrogate company reaches supply agreement with Romanian security firm

A Harrogate communications firm has reached an agreement with a Romanian security company to supply telephone and workplace technology.

Storm, which is based at Cardale Park, has announced the partnership with Civitas Group, which works with major oil, gas and petrochemicals companies in the country.

The Harrogate-based firm will supply Civitas with workforce management and communications technology, including radio phones known as Push-to-Talk over Cellular.

Luke Wilkinson, founding director of Storm, said:

“We are delighted to be partnering with Civitas Group, a long established and highly respected provider of security services to blue chip clients and their interests across Romania and its fast-growing economy.

“Our agreement represents a new customer and new region for Storm and is another sign of increasing market confidence in the strength and resilience of our world-leading technologies.”

Man fined for breaching Harrogate council order over scrap cars

A man has been fined for breaching an enforcement notice by storing scrap cars at a Harrogate district farm without permission.

Malcolm Grange, 67, of White Wall Farm in Felliscliffe, was found to have breached the order which was first issued to him in May 2016.

Harrogate Borough Council ordered Grange to stop using the land for the storage of external vehicles, vehicle parts and tyres without planning permission.

The 67-year-old appeared before Harrogate Magistrates Court on November 28 charged with breaching the order between July 27 and September 3, 2021.

He was fined £480, ordered to pay costs of £2,700 and a victim surcharge of £48.

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Grange, who was convicted for a similar offence in 2012 by the Environment Agency, had initially appealed the order to the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

However, planning inspector John Braithwaite ruled in favour of the borough council.

He said:

“Evidence indicates that the land was in use for the storage of vehicles, vehicle parts and tyres on the date of issue of the enforcement notice.”

Starbeck woman, 67, takes on swimming charity challenge

A Starbeck woman is set to take on a 50-length swim in aid of a children’s cancer charity.

Carol Bland, who is 67 and has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis and fibromyalgia, aims to raise funds for Candelighters, which helped her after her 12-year-old daughter Faye died.

Faye had leukaemia and passed away in 1991.

Carol said the Leeds-based charity helped the family during the two years her daughter was ill.

She said:

“The Candlelighters did a lot for us as a family for the two years that Faye was ill. They also provided us with a free caravan at Primrose Valley after we lost her.”

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The 67-year-old now wants to thank the charity for their help and is planning a 50-length swim at Starbeck Pool.

She will take on the challenge on her birthday and is asking for donations instead of presents.

Carol added:

“I’m not in the best of health anymore and can’t participate in the walks or runs so I decided that for my birthday on December 17 instead of presents I would ask for sponsorship to do a 50-length swim of Starbeck Pool.”

For more information about Candlelighters and to donate to Carol’s swimming challenge, visit the donations page here.

Plan to create six flats above former Harrogate Orvis store

Plans have been lodged to create six new flats above the former Orvis store in Harrogate.

The proposal lodged by York-based Balance Planning Solution Ltd on behalf of Andrew Farrar would see the upper floors of the unit on West Park converted for housing.

Orvis closed its doors back in April after 25 years of trading in the town.

The plan would see part of the ground floor unit converted for access to the apartments, along with an entrance to the back of the building next to the Coach House flats on Robert Street.

It would see a mixture of one bedroom and two bedroom apartments created.

The developer said in documents submitted to Harrogate Borough Council that the plan would not include any extension of the building.

It said:

“It is considered that the proposed scheme responds to the constraints of the site, planning policy constraints and its heritage context and should fall within the parameters of acceptable development.”

Harrogate Borough Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

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Plan to convert Glasshouses pub into holiday cottage rejected

A plan to convert a former Glasshouses pub into a holiday cottage has been refused.

The Birch Tree, at Lupton Bank, closed its doors back in March 2020 due to the covid pandemic.

In plans lodged to Harrogate Borough Council, Harrogate Architectural Ltd said the site had been marketed extensively without success.

The fresh proposal would have seen the empty public house converted into a two-bedroom holiday cottage.

However, the borough council rejected the plan on the grounds that the loss of the pub was “not justified”.

In a decision notice, the authority said:

“The proposal would result in the loss of the community facility and this loss is not justified, therefore the development is in conflict with policy HP8 and part F of policy EC7 of the Local Plan.

“It has not been demonstrated that reasonable attempts have been made to actively market the land and premises in line with the requirements of policy HP8.”

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The site has already seen three cottages built under a previous planning permission, with the pub reduced in size.

In planning documents for the fresh proposal, the developer said the building had been put on the market without success.

It said:

“These premises have now remained empty since March 2020 when the previous tenant walked away due to the pandemic. 

“Since that time two agents have marketed the property including a specialist in selling public houses, for a period of seven months. 

“Since that time the applicant has continued his own marketing, all without success.”

Stray Views: Valley Gardens boating pool should remain for boats

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Valley Gardens boating pool is for boats

May I quote from my book Souvenir Guide to the Valley Gardens in relation to Fountain v Model Yachts.

The Valley Gardens grew from an ancient footpath that linked the Old Sulphur Well beneath the Royal Pump Room with the mineral wells on Bogs Field. During the nineteenth century, the walk was embellished with planting. At this time, there were paths either side of the stream which incorporated ponds, fountains and a rock garden.

The boating pool was built as a children’s paddling pool in 1925. Over time its use changed from a children’s paddling pool to the Boating Pool.

The boating pool should be left for boats and the Fountain should be where it used to be in the stream not far from the Magnesia Well where it was much admired.

Anne Smith, Harrogate

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Government should take climate crisis seriously with flexible planning laws

I confess to being disappointed with the performance of the government of late – a fiasco on many levels, I’d say. I would not have been able to continue to keep my reputation and run a business for the twenty years I did had I acted in the manner of our representatives.

However, putting that aside, I want to do something – for myself – to mitigate the risks associated with the current crises of climate change, energy pricing and the cost of living but seem to be being blocked at every turn.

You see, I’m lucky enough to live in a conservation area – not that it had that designation when I bought the property over thirty years ago. In addition, in the late 1990’s, I bought a derelict barn at the bottom of my garden that was originally part of a farm. The developer building houses on the site of the farm was intending to demolish the barn (which is over 100 years old) and build a garage for the new builds, three expensive new properties. 

To cut a long story short, we purchased the barn, repaired the walls and roof, then made it into habitable accommodation and connected it to our bungalow for my mother-in-law to move into as she had some health issues, made worse by the loss of her husband. This work was completed in 2000.

For energy efficiency reasons, I’d like to fit good quality uPVC doors & windows (which are almost indistinguishable from wood) in the barn and have applied twice to change the original planning permission which stipulated wood was to be used – the last time going to appeal. Permission was refused. The bungalow attached to the barn already has uPVC windows, as do many other properties in the conservation area, and the barn windows are not visible from the road.

What I am asking is that our governments decides what they want to do. We can live in a pretty country with quaint houses we can’t afford to heat – generating higher levels of CO2 – and be unable to do anything about it or we can take the crises we face seriously and allow some flexibility in the planning process – face the problems head-on.

The front of my house faces south and I’d be willing to install, at my cost, solar panels and an energy storage system but, this requires planning permission with the associated cost and hassle; some applications have been refused because it spoils the look of the village – which has to be nonsense in light of the current crises.

I’d like our governments to decide what they want. The energy crisis is fundamentally of our own making –  don’t tell me it is a world problem, out of our hands; nonsense – it isn’t. We should never have done the dash-for-gas – generating electricity from gas; had we refrained, we’d still be self-sufficient in natural gas. This isn’t hindsight; as a Fellow of the IET, I have given numerous talks on climate change – warning of the dangers for decades – and I am on record as saying that we should not be generating electricity with gas. The reasoning, gas can be delivered to the home for burning at 90% efficiency. This drops to 30 or 40% (at best) if it is delivered as electricity. If I’m generous I’d say we have wasted 60% of the gas we used in electricity generation.

We’ve screwed up, and the current Conservatives must take some of the blame – they’ve been in power for long enough. What we need is vision; the government isn’t leading but has been forced to act by the (inevitable) rise of the evil empire and its invasion of Ukraine. What it has done is too little and too late. We all need to rise to the challenge. We can achieve more but what is currently being done is green-washing and simply not enough. Governments local and national must remove the roadblocks and let us be accountable for solving the problem ourselves. Give me the chance.

Paul Smith, Staveley

Do you have an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Public control of North Yorkshire bus network ‘not realistic’, says transport chief

Public control of North Yorkshire’s bus network is not a “realistic answer” to the system’s current woes, says the county’s transport chief.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive member for highways and transport at North Yorkshire County Council, said such a move would be too expensive for the authority to take on.

It comes as officials at the county council have warned passengers that some services may be scrapped if not enough people use them.

Cllr Duncan told an executive meeting that bringing the network under public authority ownership – often referred to as franchising –  would lead to “20 to 30 thousands pounds of subsidy” per passenger every year.

He said:

“I think that no matter what political party you may come from in North Yorkshire County Council and beyond, or whatever political persuasion you might be, you’re looking at those figures at potentially subsiding per passenger per year at ten, twenty, thirty thousand pounds and it just doesn’t stack up.

“The case is not there. We know we have got some unique times in North Yorkshire and we have got to work through those. It is potentially more difficult than just ‘lets have public authority control’, that is not going to be a realistic answer to the problems we face.”

Local control is ‘better value’

Matthew Topham, of the Better Buses for North Yorkshire campaign group, said that bringing the county’s network under local control was “common sense”.

Mr Topham said a franchising model – which Transport for London and Greater Manchester operate under – would be better value for passengers.

He said:

“Far from being “unrealistic,” taking buses into local control is the only common sense answer. It’s better value. It’s popular. It unlocks unique powers to improve services.

“Findings from London show franchising is a more efficient use of public money. In Jersey, it helped the council add routes while cutting costs by £800,000 a year. Imagine if we had it here!

“Polls show over two-thirds of the public back local control. Experts from the Countryside Charity CPRE, levelling up think tank IPPR North, and even the UN agree: local control is the way forward.

“If the mountainous areas of France or Switzerland all find it cheaper to coordinate services through local control, we can trust that North Yorkshire will too.”

The network’s woes come as seven months ago the government rejected North Yorkshire County Council’s bid for a £116m share of Boris Johnson’s high-profile Bus Back Better initiative, saying the local authority’s plans lacked ambition.

Since then, local politicians have raised concern over the future of services in their area.

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Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate, said he feared up to 80 services could be under threat across the county.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat councillor for Pateley Bridge, Andrew Murday, said residents of his division faced having just two services a day to Harrogate.

He said:

“We just have to do something about bus services, and encourage more people onto buses. We need to know how we are going to go about discouraging people from driving and encouraging people on to buses, so bus services can thrive.”

Developers appeal Lamb and Flag housing plan refusal

Developers have appealed a council decision to refuse plans to build five houses at the Lamb and Flag pub in Bishop Monkton.

The proposal was tabled by Carol and Trevor Pawson for the 200-year-old pub, which also had a bed and breakfast.

Harrogate Borough Council rejected plans for the pub back in May.

Now, the developers have taken the refusal to the government’s Planning Inpsectorate, which deals with planning disputes.

As part of the plan, two houses would be created by converting the pub itself and another would be created at the barn next door.

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A further two homes would be built at the car park at the back of the pub.

However, council officials have refused the application on the grounds that “insufficient marketing” has been done to demonstrate that the pub could not be used for community use.

Officers added in a decision notice that two of the houses on the car park are outside the development limits.

In documents submitted to the government, the developers argued that the site was not viable for any community use.

It said:

“An independent report has confirmed there is no scope for the Appeal property to be viably run as a public house. 

“The issues highlighted in that report would equally, and perhaps more so, apply to any alternative community use. 

“The only realistic potential purchasers for an alternative community use project would be the parish council and Harrogate Borough Council. The property has been marketed since 2017 and at no time has either body expressed any interest in it.”

A government planning inspector will make a decision on the plan at a later date.