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Dec 2020

Last Updated: 09/12/2020

Politics

Green Hammerton gets final approval for 3,000-home settlement

by Thomas Barrett

| 10 Dec, 2020

Harrogate Borough Council last night voted to adopt its Local Plan, the planning blueprint for the district, which includes Green Hammerton as the site of the new settlement. Flaxby had also been considered.

Harrogate Borough Council offices at Knapping Mount.

The long-running saga over where to build a 3,000-home settlement in the Harrogate district appears to be over, with Green Hammerton selected ahead of Flaxby.

Harrogate Borough Council last night voted to adopt its Local Plan, the planning blueprint for the district, which includes Green Hammerton as the site of the new settlement.

It was the second time the council voted on the matter, after a High Court judge last month ordered it to do so again.

Just like last time, the full council voted in favour of Green Hammerton, this time by a near-unanimous decision.

This appears to have ended any hopes of building at Flaxby, near the A1.

Nick Brown, Conservative councillor for Bishop Monkton and Newby, was the only person to vote against the recommendation.

Cllr Brown said he felt Flaxby was a more sustainable option and he would therefore vote against the Local Plan. He said:

"Flaxby is the best site still, and I feel saddened for the thousands of residents in Green Hammerton who will be so badly and necessarily affected by the new town site."

Norman Waller, Conservative councillor for Marston Moor, abstained.

High Court battle

Mr Justice Holgate ordered the re-vote after a three-day judicial review between the council and Flaxby Park Ltd, which planned to build on the former Flaxby golf course.

The judge ruled in the council’s favour by saying the decision to select Green Hammerton did not have to be made again.

But he said the council had to vote again to adopt its Local Plan after considering a report known as a strategic environmental assessment, which was not put before the full council when the plan was first adopted in March 2020.

The judge said this "legal flaw" invalidated the adoption of the Local Plan.

Before the vote, cabinet member for planning councillor Tim Myatt conceded that Flaxby Park Ltd "landed a punch" on the issue of the strategic environmental assessment, but he added it was a "procedural error" that could be rectified.

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

Flaxby fails to stop Green Hammerton development at High Court

He said he hoped councillors "share my regret" that they were being asked to vote on the Local Plan again, after less than a year.

He added:

"The reason we are here is simple. A site developer was unsuccessful with a proposal for a new settlement in the district.

"When the planning inspector didn't provide the result they wanted, they went to a judicial review to try and quash the new settlement policies within the plan. If that had happened our Local Plan would have fallen in total.

"The Local Plan process was a long and complicated one. Many controversial decisions about where homes would be built had to be made. There were few easy decisions.

"Across the district, we've seen the impact of not having a plan can have, but that does not mean getting an agreement on a plan is or was easy."

Now councillors are satisfied the report would not have affected their decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby, it should finally put to bed the question of where the new settlement will be built.

A public consultation on options for the Green Hammerton / Cattal settlement will run until January 22.

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Green Hammerton gets final approval for 3,000-home settlement

High Court battle

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