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27
Nov 2020
A planning specialist has blamed Harrogate District Council's "parochial mindset" and "lack of vision" for the district's "massive urban sprawl".
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, contacted the Stray Ferret to give us his views after reading our series of planning articles this week.
Mr Howarth said the coverage had "brilliantly identified the major problems we have had over the last 20 years".
He said the district's planning department had been in a "state of disarray for two decades", which had left the area at the mercy of developers.
Mr Howarth said the "acutely embarrassing debacle" of the Local Plan, which maps planning in the district and took six years to finalise between 2014 and 2020, was the critical failure. He said:
Mr Howarth said the current situation was "predominantly the fault of the people in charge of Harrogate Borough Council" and its planning department needed to be more dynamic and visionary.
He said many planners were reluctant to speak out in case it cost them work with the council. He said:
The Stray Ferret has asked Harrogate Borough Council for a response to Mr Howarth's claims. At the time of publication we had not received one.
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