All week the Stray Ferret has published articles investigating new housing developments in the Harrogate district. We focused on the years between 2014 and 2020 when the borough council did not have an adopted Local Plan.

Following the series, we interviewed Conservative county councillor Don Mackenzie and the leader of Harrogate & Knaresborough Liberal Democrats Pat Marsh about their role in the formation of the Local Plan, as well as representatives from Labour and the Green Party to get their thoughts on housing in the district.

On Tuesday, we requested an interview with the chief executive of Harrogate Borough Council, Wallace Sampson who has been in the position since 2008. This was declined.

On Tuesday we also asked for an interview with Conservative council leader Richard Cooper, who has held the position since 2014, but were told he was on annual leave. We then requested to speak to a senior councillor as a substitute for Cllr Cooper but this request was also declined.

Cllr Don Mackenzie: Conservative Party executive member for highways and public transport, North Yorkshire County Council.

You were the leader of Harrogate Borough Council in 2011/12 and before that was its cabinet member for planning and transport for several years. Do you take any responsibility for the failure of the 2013 Local Plan?

I take no responsibility for the delay in the Local Plan. But it took many years adopt it, far longer than I thought it would.

As the years went by, government and the inspectors said we need more houses. The housing requirement increased from 390 to over 600 which has lead to the sorts of pressures that we find now. Attitudes changed and the government found that Britain needed more homes. The population was increasing and the needs for housing increased.

We spoke to Phil I'Anson, a Harrogate gas engineer who said he might move his business out of the town due to congestion caused by new housing. Do you feel sympathy for him?

Of course. I read the article and his experiences was one reason we wanted to do the Harrogate congestion study. The last thing we want is for Harrogate and Knaresborough to become areas where businesses feel is not suitable for them because they are getting stuck in traffic. Congestion scares people away.

NYCC asks developers to provide a minimum number of car parking spaces in developments. Does this encourage car ownership?

There was a time 20 years when the government set maximum limits for car parking spaces. But houses were being built and people didn't have places to park their cars, so people ended up parking them on the public highway. That is not a satisfactory situation.

NYCC's minimum requirement was the right way to go. Car ownership has continued to rise and I don't want all of these cars parking on the public highway.

Now that the relief road idea is dead, can you be specific on will come next to tackle congestion?

We'll be guided by the findings of the congestion study and we are looking at various options that will come ahead of building any new roads.

These will include dedicated cycle paths, better walking infrastructure, park and ride and improving public transport. We are going to be investing in many of those.

Harrogate Borough Council has responsibility for planning whereas NYCC has responsibility for schools, roads, health and public transport. Is this two-tier system a hindrance when formulating a Local Plan and has Harrogate suffered because of it?

No, HBC has full responsibility for their Local Plan. NYCC is a statutory consultee. When you do any development you have to consider highways, school places, adult social care and doctor's surgeries, but we are just a consultee.

What we cannot do at NYCC is control the housing numbers. That's outside of our brief. HBC's Local Plan calls for 600 homes a year and clearly, that presents challenges. In unitary local government, things become much more simplified, but I don't think the two-tier system in any way affected Harrogate's ability with the local plan.

Cllr Pat Marsh: leader of the Liberal Democrats on HBC and planning committee member.

Have the Lib Dems been a weak opposition against housing development in the district?

Our hands were totally tied. If you look at my record on planning I voted against nearly every single one. I am not one who gets bowled over easily. I came to Harrogate when I was 2. I've been here 70 years. I want to protect the place I was brought up in and where my grandchildren now live.

I'm furious that these developers have been allowed to get away with it. The blame goes back to not being able to secure the Local Plan in 2014.

As much as I'd like to knock the Tories on this like crazy, we all fought continuously, but I didn't roll over as easy as others.

You have received your own share of criticism for voting in favour of the Local Plan that was finally adopted earlier this year. How do you feel about this?

If I didn't vote through the Local Plan I would say I'd be willing to go through another six years where developers could ride roughshod over us. I had gone through enough trauma of having no Local Plan.

I voted for the Local Plan as a protection because we went through a horrendous six years as a planning committee. We needed a Local Plan so we could enforce policies on for example, the amount of bedrooms in a home.

I do get upset when they say I rolled over. I supported protection so we could fight developers with our own policies.

HBC's planning committee has refused several sites this year after they have already been included in the adopted Local Plan. Are these refusals risking more legal challenges and cost for the council?

Absolutely but from my perspective, the local plan wasn't done properly from a councillor perspective. I was involved in two previous Local Plans and back then we physically visited all the sites. This time we weren't. We had lots of briefings, but we didn't debate the sites in the same kind of the way we did before. We voted for the plan as a whole but not once did we vote on individual sites. We hadn't pulled it together as councillors.

Read the series in full:

• Harrogate district targeted for development during planning chaos


• Housing Investigation: New homes out of reach for too many locals


• Housing Investigation: 26,500 more cars on the district’s roads


• Housing Investigation: infrastructure at breaking point?Housing Investigation: New homes out of reach for too many locals


• Housing Investigation: Calculations reveal houses covering over 700 football pitches will be built in the Harrogate district by 2035. 

Hannah Corlett: press officer, Harrogate & District Green Party.

How do you rate the environmental credentials of the new housing developments?

None of the new housing developments fit what we want to see in regards to sustainability. There's been a lack of action for years.

All we're asking is there to be thought for the future in these developments, before they are built and not after. Once they are built you don't see the developers for dust. We want HBC to hold these developers to account.

They should ensure things like solar panels are built on them. We're not idealists, we're holding people to account so everyone has a better future in Harrogate.

Chris Watt: vice chair, Harrogate & Knaresborough Labour Party

What is the Labour Party's perspective on housing in Harrogate?

There's clearly not enough social housing in the borough. Unfortunately, HBC has been prioritising home ownership but these homes are neither affordable or sustainable.

This is a very desirable area to live in, but it feels like developers are taking advantage of that. Families are being forced out because they can't afford to buy homes in our area.