A councillor whose division could be transformed by thousands of new homes says he is “absolutely amazed” that a landowner was able to pull out of the Maltkiln scheme at the 11th hour.
Last week, Harrogate Borough Council revealed a landowner had decided against selling a parcel of land that would have formed part of a 3,000 to 4,000-home settlement called Maltkiln.
The potential town, which includes two primary schools, would be built off the A59 towards York near the villages of Cattal, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.
The news came as a blow to Wetherby-based Caddick Group, which has been developing plans for several years.
The developer called the decision by the landowner “regrettable” but said it was confident the scheme would continue.
The broad location for Maltkiln is allocated for development in the council’s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which maps out where housebuilding can take place.
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Planning permission for Maltkiln is yet to be granted but a development plan document has been painstakingly prepared by the council over the last two years and was close to being submitted to the government for approval.
The council has said work on the development plan has now been “paused”.
Cllr Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn division on North Yorkshire County Council, described the situation as “a bit of a mess”.
Cllr Warneken told the Local Democracy Reporting Service:
“How did Harrogate Borough Council and the developer not tie-up people to legal agreements for the sale of land? I’m absolutely amazed they didn’t tie-up all these options.
“They are back to the drawing board and I wouldn’t want to be paying for this. The development plan document goes back on hold and will need to be redrafted. It almost starts again.”
Cllr Warneken said he understood the parcel of land formed a significant part of the overall masterplan.
He described an initial celebratory mood in the affected villages after the council released its statement, with residents hoping it could throw the whole project into doubt.
Now the dust has settled, he fears it could mean the developer will have to reduce its ambitions for the scheme in order to make it financially viable.
He said:
“The viability will have to be adjusted and could mean a change in the nature of properties. There might be higher density, bigger properties, and they could build one primary school instead of two. I wanted this to be an ecologically exemplar development but I’m concerned they will chip away at that.”
Responding, a spokesperson for Caddick Group said:
“It is usual for landowners to want differing terms when entering into agreements to sell their land and all such agreements are only for a specific period. In this particular case, the family concerned were previously willing to sell but wished to limit their legal agreement to a shorter period of time than the other landowners and subsequently decided not to extend or renew their agreement.
“Our proposals include innovative approaches to reducing both energy and vehicle use which will still apply to an updated new settlement boundary, which will also now incorporate a significant element of renewable energy generation.
“We are now in the early stages of reviewing our draft masterplan for Maltkiln in consultation with Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, both of which will need to decide how best to advance the new settlement from this point on.
“Once we know how the councils wish to approach the change in land area, and we have explored how our proposals could be best aligned with their intended process, we will engage with the community and key stakeholders once again.”
