Editor's Pick of the Week: Housebuilding and hosepipe bans

This article features just a handful of the approximately 100 articles we publish each week, all focused exclusively on the Harrogate district. To access all the links, please subscribe here. It costs just 14p a day and means you are supporting independent local journalism.

Not long after Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office, the Labour government pledged to drive up housing.

North Yorkshire was imposed a target of 4,156 homes a year — it had previously been 1,361 — which led to Cllr Aldred, Mayor of Harrogate, to warn of “open season” for developers.

There are also fears over “speculative” applications as the county has no Local Plan, which will designate where new houses can be built in the county.

A glance at our coverage this week would suggest that the worry over more housing applications may not necessarily be unfounded.

There is a plan for 130 homes in Killinghall, a proposal for 210 homes between Spofforth and Wetherby and a developer is set to take North Yorkshire Council to appeal over 25 homes in the Kingsley area of Harrogate.

Twelve months on from Labour’s pledge, it appears developers are following the government’s lead.

Away from housing and onto the weather, who enjoyed the spell of rain we had last weekend?

For some, it was an end to beer garden weather and days spent in the garden. For others, it was much needed relief and plenty of water for the flowers.

Another question on some peoples’ mind during the downpour was whether this would spell an end to the hosepipe ban. In short, the answer is no. But Yorkshire Water did give reasons as to why, which you can read here.

Finally, perhaps our quirkiest story of the week was found on a housing development on Whiney Lane.

The drive to build homes on the site was paused in February after archaeologists were called in.

Some five months later, we can report that the reason for the sudden halt to construction was because a crucial piece of Harrogate’s history was unearthed at the site. You can read senior journalist John Grainger’s fascinating piece here.

John Plummer is away.