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02
Oct 2020
Council prepares for 3,000-home Green Hammerton consultation
Harrogate Borough Council is preparing a public consultation on the location of 3,000 new homes to be built near the villages of Green Hammerton and Cattal.
Planning consultant Gillespies has produced a report for the council setting out three possible sites for the development, including a preferred option on land south of Cattal train station.
Along with the housing, the plans include two new primary schools, employment space and retail units.
HBC's cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss the report and potentially approve a consultation that would begin later this year.
In February, developers Oakgate Group submitted plans to HBC for Maltkin Village, a scheme near to Cattal.
The three new settlement options to be discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday are below. The orange colour indicates where the new housing would be built, green indicates green spaces and purple indicates employment space. Blue shows where the "local centre" of the development would be.
Meanwhile, plans submitted in 2017 for 2,750 new homes at Flaxby which were due to be discussed by planners on Tuesday will now be heard at a later date. The developer, Flaxby Park Ltd, had not been informed of the committee date due to a "technical error".
A council spokesperson said "as a gesture of goodwill" the authority would offer the developer more time to prepare. A new date is yet to be set.
Option One
This option focuses on the area north of the railway line between Cattal and Hammerton train stations and incorporates the village edges of Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.
Option Two
This option focuses on the area north of the railway line around Cattal station, with the majority of the development located south of the A59.
Option Three
This option focuses on the area around Cattal station expanding towards the south and southwest of the railway line. This is the current preferred option, according to the report to be discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday.
Read more:
Flaxby development set for High Court battle
Council accused of ‘steamrollering’ through Green Hammerton plans
'Clawback'
A report written in 2017 by Gary Fielding, corporate director for strategic resources at North Yorkshire County Council, revealed that the county council would make money on some land at Green Hammerton if it were developed.
The report states that in 2003, NYCC sold land at Green Hammerton to farmer Derek Pickles. When the council sold the land, there was a covenant attached that said if planning permission were granted within 30 years for any other use of the property, a "clawback" would apply. This would result in NYCC receiving 70% of the uplift in the land’s open market value.
According to the report published by Gillespies, the land owned by Mr Pickles, which is close to the village of Green Hammerton, would primarily fall into options one and two and not the preferred option around Cattal train station.
Harrogate Borough Council adopted its Local Plan in March 2020 and chose Green Hammerton as the broad location for a new settlement in the district.
However, the choice has been contested by Flaxby Park Ltd, which wants to create a new village on a former golf course to the east of Knaresborough.
As reported in the Stray Ferret yesterday, Harrogate Borough Council will head to the High Court in London later this month for a judicial review that will decide whether or not the decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby for a new settlement was unlawful.
If found to be unlawful, the decision on where to place the new settlement may have to made again.
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