Flaxby and Green Hammerton saga could be concluded next week

A report evaluating the environmental implications of building 3,000 homes in either Green Hammerton or Flaxby will be considered by councillors next week.

It follows a High Court ruling last week in the long-running saga about Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the site for a major new settlement in the district.

Mr Justice Holgate ruled in the council’s favour by saying the decision did not have to be made again.

But he said the full council did have to consider the report, known as a strategic environmental assessment, before it could proceed.

The council has wasted no time preparing the document: its cabinet will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to adopt the report as part of its Local Plan. The full council will then vote on it later that day.

If councillors are satisfied the report would not have affected their decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby, it would correct the “legal error” that Mr Justice Holgate identified in the judicial review and finally put to bed the question of where the new settlement will be built.

Legal costs

The judge did, however, order Harrogate Borough Council to pay 15% of the legal costs of Flaxby Park Ltd, which brought the case against the council, as well as its own.

A spokesperson from Flaxby Park Ltd told the Stray Ferret it expected the council would have to pay it a “significant five-figure sum”.

The Stray Ferret has asked the council how much it estimated its legal costs to be. The council replied it did not yet have a final figure.

Read more:

Public consultation

Meanwhile, a public consultation on the Green Hammerton/Cattal settlement proposals is running until January 22.

Following the judicial review judgement last week, campaign group Keep Green Hammerton Green released a statement urging the council to pause the consultation due to impending local government reorganisation and government planning reforms.

A council spokesman said:

“There are no plans to stop the current consultation on the development plan document.

“We urge residents and community groups to continue to share their views on what specific requirements are needed to deliver these much needed new homes for existing and future residents of the district.”

170 Knaresborough homes ‘catastrophic’ for Hay-a-Park wildlife

Plans for 170 homes on Water Lane in Knaresborough will have a ‘catastrophic’ impact on wildlife at nearby beauty spot Hay-a-Park, according to local people.

Landowner Geoffrey Holland’s application would see homes built on the north-eastern edge of the town, next to the Hay-a-Park lake and three smaller ponds.

The site, which is on a flooded former quarry, was designated as a site of special scientific interest in 1995 because it supports a number of rare birds, including the goosander and reed warbler.

The planning application has provoked a passionate response from residents, with about 60 objections at the time of publication. Several raised concerns about the impact of the housing on hedgerows within the SSSI where birds nest.

David Bunting, who lives next to the lake, told the Stray Ferret he has concerns about flooding and the impact on the birds’ habitat:

“This housing would go right up to the lake and risks huge environmental damage to the site. Birds have come from across the world to nest here over winter for thousands of years.”

Goosander fears

Another local resident, James McKay, highlighted a report from 2012 which stated numbers of goosander have been decreasing. He told the Stray Ferret:

“It will have a catastrophic impact on Hay-a-Park gravel pit, which is already under pressure from increased urbanisation.”

Read more:

Harrogate Borough Council refused an application from Mr Holland for 218 homes in October last year, despite the site being allocated for development in what was then the council’s draft Local Plan.

The council said the proposal did not include enough affordable housing and was ‘of poor quality and out of character with its surroundings’. It also said it did not include a proper assessment that explored the impact of housing on the SSSI.

A planning statement submitted for the new application said the proposals included “a wide range of ecological enhancement measures”.

It added:

“The design-led approach, informed by consultation with the local planning authority and Natural England, responds sensitively to the site setting, respecting the urban grain and ecology features present in the surrounding landscape, both built and undeveloped.”

Minimise impact on birds

Following the refusal last year, ecological consultancy Baker Consultants produced a Hay-a-Park SSSI impact assessment on behalf of the developer. It recommends that Harrogate Borough Council and Natural England manage the SSSI’s grassland and woodland to improve biodiversity.

A separate ecological appraisal recommended the impact on birds is minimised through the creation of green space within the development and with nest boxes.

It also says construction that might directly impact breeding birds should be limited to September to February when they do not breed.

The Stray Ferret asked the agent for the application, Cunnard Town Planning, for a statement but we had not received a response at the time of publication.

The application will be considered by HBC’s planning committee at a later date.

MPs watch: November – a month of lockdown

Every month the Stray Ferret tries to find out what our local MPs have been up to in their constituencies and in the House of Commons.

On November 4, our three MPs voted in favour of a month-long lockdown for England, which has dominated life in the district ever since.

We asked Harrogate & Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, Ripon MP Julian Smith, and Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams if they would like to highlight anything in particular that they have been doing this month, but we did not receive a response from any of them.

Here is what we know after analysing their online presence.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

Andrew Jones, Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

In Harrogate and Knaresborough, here is what we found on Mr Jones:

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

Julian Smith, MP for Ripon and Skipton.

In Ripon, here is what we found on Mr Smith:

Read more:

Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty which includes rural Harrogate.

In rural south Harrogate, he is what we found on Mr Adams:

Could Flaxby now become a 400-lodge eco-resort?

The owners of the former Flaxby golf course could attempt to create a 400-lodge eco-resort on the site after their hopes of building 3,000 homes there were dashed last week.

A High Court judge ruled last week that Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the site of a new 3,000-home settlement does not have to be made again.

This decision could prompt Flaxby Park to instigate alternative plans to transform the site into a tourism resort.

A report published by planning consultants Lichfields on behalf of Flaxby Park this year outlines a vision to transform the golf course, which closed in 2015, into a “sustainable eco-resort”.

The report claims the resort could generate £35m a year of visitor spending and employ 600 full-time staff.

As well as the 400 eco-lodges, the proposals include an indoor sports area, paddle boarding and boating, a swimming pool, a spa, shops and restaurants.

An aerial view of the Flaxby site.

According to the report, the “driving principle” of the resort is to allow families to “reconnect with nature, providing an ecologically rich environment” using renewable energy.

It says:

“The development of this unique, environmentally conscious eco-lodge holiday complex would generate significant benefits for the local economy and that of the wider region.”

Plans for the eco-resort have not yet been submitted to the council, but they would be a major addition to district tourism if they came to fruition.

A spokesperson from Flaxby Park confirmed to the Stray Ferret the eco-resort was a potential option for the golf course.

Read more:

Flaxby Park Ltd has owned the site since April 2016. Previous owner the Skelworth Group had planning permission to build a 300-bedroom, five-star hotel but the company went out of business before the plans materialised.

In separate plans, Harrogate company Forward Investment already has outline planning permission for an eco-friendly business park immediately south of the golf course at the junction of the A59 and A1M.

 

 

Housing Investigation: the politicians defend their records

All week the Stray Ferret has published articles investigating new housing developments in the Harrogate district. We focused on the years between 2014 and 2020 when the borough council did not have an adopted Local Plan.

Following the series, we interviewed Conservative county councillor Don Mackenzie and the leader of Harrogate & Knaresborough Liberal Democrats Pat Marsh about their role in the formation of the Local Plan, as well as representatives from Labour and the Green Party to get their thoughts on housing in the district.

On Tuesday, we requested an interview with the chief executive of Harrogate Borough Council, Wallace Sampson who has been in the position since 2008. This was declined.

On Tuesday we also asked for an interview with Conservative council leader Richard Cooper, who has held the position since 2014, but were told he was on annual leave. We then requested to speak to a senior councillor as a substitute for Cllr Cooper but this request was also declined.

Cllr Don Mackenzie: Conservative Party executive member for highways and public transport, North Yorkshire County Council.

Cllr Don Mackenzie

You were the leader of Harrogate Borough Council in 2011/12 and before that was its cabinet member for planning and transport for several years. Do you take any responsibility for the failure of the 2013 Local Plan?

I take no responsibility for the delay in the Local Plan. But it took many years adopt it, far longer than I thought it would.

As the years went by, government and the inspectors said we need more houses. The housing requirement increased from 390 to over 600 which has lead to the sorts of pressures that we find now. Attitudes changed and the government found that Britain needed more homes. The population was increasing and the needs for housing increased.

We spoke to Phil I’Anson, a Harrogate gas engineer who said he might move his business out of the town due to congestion caused by new housing. Do you feel sympathy for him?

Of course. I read the article and his experiences was one reason we wanted to do the Harrogate congestion study. The last thing we want is for Harrogate and Knaresborough to become areas where businesses feel is not suitable for them because they are getting stuck in traffic. Congestion scares people away.

NYCC asks developers to provide a minimum number of car parking spaces in developments. Does this encourage car ownership?

There was a time 20 years when the government set maximum limits for car parking spaces. But houses were being built and people didn’t have places to park their cars, so people ended up parking them on the public highway. That is not a satisfactory situation.

NYCC’s minimum requirement was the right way to go. Car ownership has continued to rise and I don’t want all of these cars parking on the public highway.

Now that the relief road idea is dead, can you be specific on will come next to tackle congestion?

We’ll be guided by the findings of the congestion study and we are looking at various options that will come ahead of building any new roads.

These will include dedicated cycle paths, better walking infrastructure, park and ride and improving public transport. We are going to be investing in many of those.

Harrogate Borough Council has responsibility for planning whereas NYCC has responsibility for schools, roads, health and public transport. Is this two-tier system a hindrance when formulating a Local Plan and has Harrogate suffered because of it?

No, HBC has full responsibility for their Local Plan. NYCC is a statutory consultee. When you do any development you have to consider highways, school places, adult social care and doctor’s surgeries, but we are just a consultee.

What we cannot do at NYCC is control the housing numbers. That’s outside of our brief. HBC’s Local Plan calls for 600 homes a year and clearly, that presents challenges. In unitary local government, things become much more simplified, but I don’t think the two-tier system in any way affected Harrogate’s ability with the local plan.

Cllr Pat Marsh: leader of the Liberal Democrats on HBC and planning committee member.

Cllr Pat Marsh

Have the Lib Dems been a weak opposition against housing development in the district?

Our hands were totally tied. If you look at my record on planning I voted against nearly every single one. I am not one who gets bowled over easily. I came to Harrogate when I was 2. I’ve been here 70 years. I want to protect the place I was brought up in and where my grandchildren now live.

I’m furious that these developers have been allowed to get away with it. The blame goes back to not being able to secure the Local Plan in 2014.

As much as I’d like to knock the Tories on this like crazy, we all fought continuously, but I didn’t roll over as easy as others.

You have received your own share of criticism for voting in favour of the Local Plan that was finally adopted earlier this year. How do you feel about this?

If I didn’t vote through the Local Plan I would say I’d be willing to go through another six years where developers could ride roughshod over us. I had gone through enough trauma of having no Local Plan.

I voted for the Local Plan as a protection because we went through a horrendous six years as a planning committee. We needed a Local Plan so we could enforce policies on for example, the amount of bedrooms in a home.

I do get upset when they say I rolled over. I supported protection so we could fight developers with our own policies.

HBC’s planning committee has refused several sites this year after they have already been included in the adopted Local Plan. Are these refusals risking more legal challenges and cost for the council?

Absolutely but from my perspective, the local plan wasn’t done properly from a councillor perspective. I was involved in two previous Local Plans and back then we physically visited all the sites. This time we weren’t. We had lots of briefings, but we didn’t debate the sites in the same kind of the way we did before. We voted for the plan as a whole but not once did we vote on individual sites. We hadn’t pulled it together as councillors.

Read the series in full:

Hannah Corlett: press officer, Harrogate & District Green Party.

Hannah Corlett

How do you rate the environmental credentials of the new housing developments?

None of the new housing developments fit what we want to see in regards to sustainability. There’s been a lack of action for years.

All we’re asking is there to be thought for the future in these developments, before they are built and not after. Once they are built you don’t see the developers for dust. We want HBC to hold these developers to account.

They should ensure things like solar panels are built on them. We’re not idealists, we’re holding people to account so everyone has a better future in Harrogate.

Chris Watt: vice chair, Harrogate & Knaresborough Labour Party

Chris Watt

What is the Labour Party’s perspective on housing in Harrogate?

There’s clearly not enough social housing in the borough. Unfortunately, HBC has been prioritising home ownership but these homes are neither affordable or sustainable.

This is a very desirable area to live in, but it feels like developers are taking advantage of that. Families are being forced out because they can’t afford to buy homes in our area.

Harrogate council defends planning department after accusations

Harrogate Borough Council has defended its planning department after a former planner told the Stray Ferret it ‘has been in a state of disarray’ for two decades.

David Howarth, who was employed by the council for five years in the 1980s and then worked for it as a private consultant for 30 years, spoke to the Stray Ferret to give us his views after reading our series of planning and housing articles this week.

In statement released to the Stray Ferret, a council spokesman robustly defended the performance of the planning department:

“To suggest our planning department has been in a ‘state of disarray for two decades’ is simply not true. The department is made up of highly qualified and experienced officers who work hard to ensure planning and development across the district adheres to national planning guidance that has changed significantly over the last few years, as well locally developed policies.

Mr Howarth said the council’s “weak resistance” to builders contrasted with its “heavy-handed” approach to residents seeking planning permission — an accusation that the council denied.

The spokesman said:

“To suggest we have a ‘weak resistance’ to builders is also not true. All planning applications, whether large-scale developments or single dwellings, are considered against this policy framework and determined accordingly.”

Read more:

Our series this week has investigated the impact of the years that followed a rejected Local Plan in 2014 -before the formation of HBC’s current Local Plan, which was adopted in March 2020.

The spokesman added:

“The development of our Local Plan has been a mammoth task, as it is for all local authorities. The latest Local Plan has been judged as sound by the independent planning inspector.”

Housing Investigation: land the size of 700 football pitches lost to new housing

The Stray Ferret has calculated that at least 500 hectares of land will be built on in the Harrogate district by 2035, that’s the equivalent of more than 700 football pitches. 

Whilst some of this is on brownfield land, vast swathes of green fields have been lost to housing developers in recent years. And because Harrogate had no Local Plan, the council had little control over which fields would be built on.

Those living in Harrogate are aware of the mental and physical benefits that the Stray provides – but green spaces in Harrogate’s outlying villages are being developed at an unprecedented pace and will continue to be for the next 14 years. 

Loss of green land

Many of the district’s significant developments – such as Linden Homes’ 600-home Manse Farm development in Knaresborough and the proposed 1,000 home at Windmill Farm in Beckwithshaw – will mean the loss of green fields that are valued by local people. 

Rebecca Southworth lives in a cottage on Lady Lane in Pannal Ash. She lives next to site H51 in the Local Plan, where there are two separate proposals to build over 750 houses on green fields around Lady Lane and Whinney Lane. One is from Banks Group that proposes 270 homes and another from Gladman to build a further 480 homes.

Rebecca Southworth

With 130 homes currently being built by Stonebridge Homes on Whinney Lane, the various developments will drastically change the face of what was once one of Harrogate’s greenest corners.

Whilst it’s often argued that people have little say in what gets developed, Rebecca said that it’s the animals who live in nature who are even more ignored.

She said:

“Who’s standing up for the wildlife here?”

Rebecca has lived in the property 10 years and says the wildlife around is “immense”. She said she sees barn owls, tawny owls, curlews, different tits and other birds, badgers and deer in the area, but now fears their habitat will be lost.

The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has also objected to the Banks Group development, saying in its current form the housing will impact on biodiversity.

Rebecca added:

“I can’t believe it’s going ahead. So many walkers have enjoyed it here, especially during lockdown. “.

To accompany the planning application, an ecology report was produced which recognises that the loss of 375m of hedgerow will have a negative impact on local wildlife, including 17 species of bird. It suggests removing the hedgerows outside of the bird’s breeding season and installing boxes for the birds and owls.

Rebecca said she is not sure if she’ll be able to face seeing the fields built upon, and is considering moving.

“I’ve been so lucky to live here and it’s been such a haven. It’s devastating. Once the green land is gone, it’s gone. I can’t stay here to see these fields get ripped up right in front of me. It’s such a shame, it’s all going to go.”

Read more:

A snapshot of development in Harrogate. Credit – HAPARA

The rural village of Burton Leonard 

Burton Leonard, a picturesque village south of Ripon faces three separate housing developments. 

The feeling from residents is the housing will mean Burton Leonard loses its village feel. 

The Campaign to Protect Rural England was one objector to a 31-home scheme on Scarah Lane. It wrote to Harrogate Borough Council to say:  

“The proposed development would cause significant harm to the form of the village and landscape character by adversely impacting on the character of the landscape and identity of the village by extending into the open countryside.”  

While the plans were initially refused by HBC, developer Loxley Homes was able to get the decision overturned at the Court of Appeal because the council couldn’t demonstrate a future supply of affordable housing. 

These developments are examples of perhaps the inevitable tension between the need to house people and the unpopular loss of land.

The council had been asked to rubber-stamp thousands of homes with only a finite amount of space in the district where they could be built. Large green fields will always be arable land to developers, because they can build larger and potentially more expensive homes on them, as the last few years in Harrogate has proved.

Now government’s looming planning reforms could potentially tear up the rule book again and make it easier to build on brownfield land or to convert unused office space into housing. This could ease the pressure for future homes to be built on green fields.

Yet as part of the same reforms, the government also wants to make planning easier for developers on small sites within or on the edge of villages, a situation which has already caused so much resistance in this district.

The climate crisis 

Beyond the loss of green land, many housebuilders in the Harrogate district have done the statutory minimum for the environment in construction, with few going beyond to future proof homes for the next generation. 

Take Persimmon Homes, which is currently building its King Edwin Park development on Pennypot Lane.  

The 600 homes make it one of the largest developments to gain planning permission while Harrogate had no Local Plan. 

Hundreds of pages of documents were submitted to HBC in 2014, with very few references to renewable energy or reducing carbon emissions. 

In the time that HBC drew up its Local Plan, the climate crisis has rocketed up the political agenda . 

HBC has decided against declaring a climate emergency and instead opted to introduce a “carbon reduction strategy”.  

The document sets out how the council aims to achieve a net-zero carbon economy by 2038. This means that all greenhouse gas production will be offset by taking emissions out of the atmosphere.  

It’s estimated that energy use in our homes contributes to 14% of the UK’s total carbon emissions and, locally, an extra 16,000 homes will be a factor in whether HBC will achieve its carbon goal. 

But no house that has been built in a major housing development in Harrogate comes close to meeting the UK Green Building Council’s definition of “net-zero carbon” — and due to current government building regulations and HBC’s own Local Plan, it is unlikely any will be built in the near future. 

The UK Green Building Council says a net-zero carbon building is highly energy-efficient and powered from renewable energy sources such as solar panels or air source heat pumps that absorb heat from the outside air to heat a home and hot water. 

Not only does this mean that the homes are helping the environment, but for residents, energy bills are almost non-existent. 

Pressure group Zero Carbon Harrogate recently published a roadmap to 2030 outlining, among other things, how housebuilding needs to be improved in the district. It proposes all homes are built to innovative Passivhaus standards and are electrically heated with air or ground-source heat pumps. 

The group says these improvements are vital as the clock is ticking on a deepening climate crisis and Harrogate, like the rest of the world, will endure freak weather events more regularly. 

HBC policy 

Chapter seven of HBC’s Local Plan says the council will “promote” zero-carbon development and “encourage” all developments to meet the “highest technically feasible and financially viable” environmental standards during construction, and after residents move in. 

However, these guiding words have not reassured groups such as Zero Carbon Harrogate or Sustainably Harrogate that the green aspirations of the Local Plan have any real teeth. 

Now that HBC has its Local Plan, could the council be doing more to pioneer greener house building in the district? 

According to one local planning expert the Stray Ferret talked to who didn’t want to be named, there was “significantly more” HBC could have included in the Local Plan that was adopted earlier this year.  

He said the authority could have asked for properties to include renewable energy such as solar, for all homes to have secure cycle storage, use of low carbon building materials and for developers to use local suppliers to reduce transport emissions. 

Bolder measures 

Speaking to the Stray Ferret earlier this year, Conservative councillor Paul Haslam suggested if Harrogate Borough Council was more forceful with developers to say they must include renewable energy sources in their developments, they would simply build homes in other places, such as Leeds. 

 Yet other councils have introduced bolder planning measures into their local plans to try and lead greener housebuilding in their areas. 

All the way back in 2010, Exeter adopted a sustainability document in its planning process that made renewable energy and zero-carbon housing one of its key housing objectives.  

In 2021 it will update the scope of the document to ensure that other technologies, such as solar heating, small scale wind turbines, ground source heat pumps and biomass heating, are part of all new housing developments. 

Similarly, Bristol’s Local Plan says in major developments, 80% of homes will be expected to have Passivhaus design. 

Passivhaus 

A rare glimpse into the type of home that could be built is on Bogs Lane in Bilton. 

Tim Larner and his wife Marilyn built their dream home 2018, and they believe it is one of only two homes in Harrogate built to a Passivhaus standard. 

Developed in Germany in the 1990s, Passivhaus is seen as a game changer for zero-carbon housing. It’s an innovative design code that prioritises insulation so that a home doesn’t need any heating or cooling at all, resulting in minimal energy bills. 

The Larners’ home has other eco benefits and was built in a factory and assembled on site, bypassing the polluting construction process entirely. 

Harrogate Borough Council granted planning permission for the home in 2017 — but Mr Larner told the Stray Ferret that getting the green light to build their cutting-edge home was a “dispiriting” experience.  

Whether or not future applications have better green credentials remains to be seen. However, those homes under construction and completed already are still built using traditional methods with inefficient designs. 

By the end of the Local Plan period in 2035, homeowners will increasingly be demanding zero-carbon homes which, at the moment, the market in Harrogate just isn’t providing. 

This is the final investigation in our week-long housing series. We have asked representatives of every political party for a response which we will publish tomorrow. 

Housing Investigation: 26,500 more cars on the district’s roads

If every home in Harrogate district’s Local Plan is built there could be an extra 26,500 cars on Harrogate’s already gridlocked roads, analysis from the Stray Ferret has found.  

Many feel congestion on the district’s roads has already reached crisis point:   

Phil I'anson Phil’s story  

Phil I’Anson owns HG Heat in Harrogate and services boilers across the district. He told the Stray Ferret that in ordinary times traffic is crippling his business and could force him to relocate from Harrogate, which has been his home all his life. 

Mr I’Anson said traffic has “gone crazy” in the four years since he set up his business, and it’s having a significant impact on his company’s bottom line. 

“I spend approximately two to three hours a day in traffic in Harrogate. It costs me one or two jobs a day. That’s £150 a day and 20% of my earning capability.” 

He said that it appears to him that neither HBC nor NYCC “has any control” over the congestion. “The builders seem to just do whatever they want,” he said. 

Mr I’Anson also said that the impact of facing Harrogate’s traffic day after day is affecting his mental health. 

“The most stressful thing I do isn’t running my company, it’s the traffic and driving around Harrogate. The work I can handle, but the traffic is what is stressful.” 

And Mr I’Anson is not alone in his concern.

No strategic approach 

Because Harrogate was unable to control where houses were built, it’s led to particular pressure points such as Skipton Road, where traffic regularly grinds to a standstill throughout the day. 

At the time of writing, there are 15 new housing developments at various stages of construction in Harrogate, with trucks buzzing in and out transporting building materials from outside the district. 

In October residents in the Whinney Lane area submitted their objections to a 270 house development to HBC- every resident cited traffic as a major concern:

“the road infrastructure in the area is already woefully inadequate to accommodate this and other existing new developments..”

“Whinney Lane and Lady Lane are country roads which are not capable of supporting additional traffic of at least 270 homes”

“traffic assessments cannot be viewed simply in terms of the increased traffic from a single proposal without looking at the cumulative impact of several developments in the area” 

And it’s this cumulative impact that is causing serious problems for businesses like Mr I’Anson’s. 

“I’ll move out of Harrogate. It’s just crazy. It’s spoiling the town for me.  

“We haven’t got the infrastructure to keep building the houses they are building. At some point, it will become just gridlock but I’ll be gone by then hopefully. Where does it end?”

Harrogate’s gridlocked future?

Our figure of 26,500 extra cars comes from a North Yorkshire County Council formula.  

The authority controls roads in the Harrogate district and asks each developer to include a set number of car parking spaces for every home they build.  

For a one– or two-bedroom home, the minimum requirement is one space, but for three bedrooms and over it’s two spaces. 

We analysed the number of bedrooms in different housing developments across the district to project a total figure of 26,500. 

The real figure could be higher- according to a 2018 report by North Yorkshire County Council.  33,000 people who currently live in Harrogate and Knaresborough fall into the top 10% wealthiest people in the UK, which is almost a third of all people living in the two towns. 

A government survey of household car ownership by income group found that 26% of people in this financial bracket own three or more cars, with more than 43% owning two. 

As developers aim to maximise profits and build large homes to target high earners, those new owners will inevitably arrive with more cars.  

Read more on our housing series: 

Public transport 

Public transport could hold the key to unlocking Harrogate’s congestion problems. However, according to NYCC’s congestion survey last year, just 6% of regular commuters in Harrogate will get the bus. 

While some areas of the district, such as Killinghall, parts of Knaresborough and Ripon, are well served by Transdev buses, there are other pockets where housing is planned that have inadequate, or non-existent, bus services. 

Kingsley Road is one of Harrogate’s main pressure points for new housing, with more than 600 homes mooted for development in the Local Plan, yet the nearest bus stop is half a mile away on Knaresborough Road. The furthest reaches of the planned development will be almost a mile away from the nearest bus stop. 

Then there is the 600-home Manse Farm development on York Road, Knaresborough, which is served by the number 21 bus into the town centre, but it only stops nearby every hour and 40 minutes – and doesn’t run at all on a Sunday or after 5.15pm. 

The 125-home Harlow Hill Grange development near Beckwithshaw, meanwhile, is not served by any bus routes. The number 6, into central Harrogate, has its closest stop more than half a mile away, up a steep section of Otley Road. 

The half-hourly service stops running at 7pm on weeknights and Saturdays. On Sundays, an hourly service runs until just after 6pm. 

For an elderly couple wanting to do a small shop in town, or a family going out for a meal, easy access to a frequent bus service at the right time could be the difference between using a car and not. 

Accepted congestion problems 

For Harrogate’s cycling community, the key to unlocking congestion is on two wheels. 

Recently the government awarded NYCC £1million pounds to create additional cycle routes and walkways.  But the construction of bespoke cycle routes (such as the one on Otley Road) has been painfully slow. Unless there is a rapid expansion of cycle routes in the next few years, many new home owners will be wedded to their cars. 

According to North Yorkshire County Council’s congestion survey, the average car journey in the town is less than 1.6 miles. 

But since NYCC scrapped plans for a controversial “relief road” through the Nidd Gorge, there has been little progress in tackling congestion around Harrogate.  It means any roadworks such as the recent ones on Skipton road can bring the system to a standstill. 

For many one of the very few joys of lockdown is how quiet the road network has been and the ease of moving around the district.

As normality returns next year Phil l’Anson and others like him will have to decide if the roads have become so congested he is forced to work elsewhere.

Tomorrow: in the final part of our housing series we’ll be looking at the environmental impact and sustainability of the new developments. 

If you want to get in touch with us about any aspect of this series please email us: contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

Harrogate district employers offered £1,500 to employ young people

Employers in the Harrogate district are being invited to take part in a government scheme that pays a young person’s wages for six months.

The government will pay the minimum wage rate for up to 25 hours a week and offer a one-off grant to employers of £1,500.

Businesses and charities willing to offer work placements to 16-24-year-olds are eligible to apply.

The kickstart scheme is part of a £2 million government initiative to give young people paid work experience.

Employers can pay more than the minimum wage or ask the recruits to work extra hours but must bear the cost.

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The scheme, which chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in July, is now accepting applications in North Yorkshire.

Speaking to the Stray Ferret in July, Harrogate College principal Danny Wild said the scheme would help address the “skills gap” in Harrogate.

He said:

“18–19-year-olds are a real vulnerable group at the moment. We’re really pleased with this announcement and it supports what Harrogate College is trying to do in the district and some of the labour market needs that Harrogate has.”

Interested organisations should contact North Yorkshire County Council, which is the intermediary body in the county acting on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

For full details of how to submit an expression of interest to NYCC, visit: http://www.nyresourcing.co.uk/northyorkshirekickstart

Flaxby fails to stop Green Hammerton development at High Court

A High Court judge has ruled that Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby for up to 3,000 homes in the district does not have to be made again.

The developer, Flaxby Park Ltd, argued at a Judicial Review last month that the council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton for 3,000 homes was based on a flawed process.

Representing Flaxby, Christopher Katkowski QC raised three objections about the way the council came to make their decision.

He said:

  1. Environmental and sustainability assessments were not brought back before councillors to help them make a decision.
  2. The council failed to include an additional 630 hectares of land in the assessment of Flaxby as a broad location.
  3. The Green Hammerton proposals were not financially viable.

In a judgement published today, Mr Justice Holgate ruled in favour of HBC on the second and third points. However, he said that an environmental and sustainability report regarding the proposals would have to go back before the full council.

He said because this report wasn’t produced at the time, it “rendered unlawful” the new settlement policies at the adoption stage of the Local Plan. It means the council will have to vote again to rectify the “legal error” to address the issue of the sustainability report.

The judgement could potentially put to bed what has been one of the most bitter planning disputes to hit Harrogate in decades.

In his conclusion, Mr Justice Holgate said:

“In my judgment there was no error in the local plan process up to and including the conclusion of the examination process.”

Harrogate Borough Council welcomed the judgement and said an updated sustainability report will be brought to full council “as soon as possible”.

A council spokesman said:

“The judge is clear there were no flaws in the development of the local plan, the process was fair and equal, and that sufficient evidence had been put forward in relation to the new settlement.

“He has ruled that the plan does not need to be quashed in part, or full, saying that would be ‘wholly unjustifiable’.

“The court’s view is there was a single procedural issue because specific attention was not drawn to an updated sustainability appraisal when adoption of the local plan was discussed by councillors, even though the document was in the public domain at the time.

“The judge stated that although Flaxby Park Limited has been successful, in-part, to Ground 1 they had mounted a ‘time-consuming and costly attack on the local plan process’ and had ‘failed in achieving what was plainly the main object or thrust of the challenge.”

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Flaxby Park Ltd released a statement to the Stray Ferret this afternoon also claiming victory.

Chris Musgrave, chief executive at Flaxby Park Ltd, said:

“Flaxby Park Limited (FPL) are delighted that we have been successful in winning our Judicial Review challenge.

“HBC did not take into account vital information such as the sustainability appraisal and the detail of the consultation process. As a result, the councillors did not have all of the relevant information which would allow them to form a sound judgement on the merits of the community settlement issue.

“Council officers have a duty to provide council members with the fullest information and this has not been the case. As a result, the decision making of elected officials in the context of Flaxby Park has been flawed.

“The judgement by Mr Justice Holgate has confirmed that HBC acted unlawfully by adopting the Local Plan and we note that an order has been made by the Judge for HBC to pay their own legal costs as well as a proportion of the costs incurred by FPL. This speaks volumes as to the validity of our successful legal challenge.”