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07
Sept 2020
Council to appoint external consultant for Harlow Nurseries housing
Harrogate Borough Council wants to dip into its reserves to pay for an external consultant who would help develop three council-owned sites, including at Harlow Nurseries next to the Pinewoods where 40 homes are mooted.
A report is due to go before HBC's cabinet on Wednesday that says the consultant would explore "quality place-making" on the sites and would assess options for how they could deliver the housing and employment needs of the district. The report does not say how much the external consultant would cost.
The three sites are at Harlow Nurseries, Dragon Road car park and land south of Almsford Bridge in Pannal. They have all been designated within the council's Local Plan, which says where development will happen in the district over the next 14 years.
Harlow Nurseries sells council plants, pots and compost to the public, but would be relocated to another location if the housing went ahead.
Earlier this year, Harrogate Borough Council asked residents their views about Harlow Nurseries, with one respondent saying "it would be a very, very sad day if the site was sold off for housing."
Read more:
Green Party to protest against water firm’s Pinewoods expansion
Littering in the Pinewoods ‘a continual problem’
At Harlow Nurseries, a condition of development is that it must provide "appropriate mitigation and compensation" to reduce any adverse environmental impacts on the Pinewoods, which is 96 acres of council-owned woodland adjacent to the site.
A spokesperson for the Pinewoods Conservation Group told the Stray Ferret:
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