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04
Nov
Environment Agency calls for 649-home scheme in Harrogate to be refused over groundwater concerns
The Environment Agency has recommended plans for 649 homes and a primary school in Harrogate be rejected because they pose an “unacceptable risk to groundwater”.
Taylor Wimpey has submitted revised plans for the major development on 41.7 hectares of land at Windmill Farm, off Otley Road.
As part of the planning process, North Yorkshire Council consults key parties for their views.
The Environment Agency’s response, uploaded on the council's planning portal last week, said:
Groundwater and contamination groundwater is particularly sensitive in this location because the proposed development site is within source protection zone 3 of the Harrogate Spring Water abstraction boreholes, used for the supply of water for human consumption.
Whilst the applicant appears to have submitted some supporting documents including a desk study and ground condition reports, there does not appear to be a chapter within the environmental statement which summarises the likely significant effects of the proposed development on the groundwater environment.
The applicant has not supplied adequate information to demonstrate that the risks posed to groundwater can be satisfactorily managed. We recommend that planning permission should be refused on this basis in line with paragraph 181 (footnote 63) of the National Planning Policy Framework.
The site is named H49, indicated in orange.
Northern Gas Networks has also objected to the application ‘on the grounds that the protection given to our plant may be diminished by the works you intend to carry out’.
Additionally, the council’s environmental protection department has raised concerns about noise levels associated with having air source heat pumps on all the homes.
The site, known as H49, is allocated for housing in the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35.
The original planning application in March 2022 was for 770 homes, a multi-use games area, play area, a two-form entry primary school, a community and commercial hub with a local convenience store and provision for 40 self-build residential plots.
The proposed housing layout
The revised plans have proposed relocating some of the facilities and amending the housing mix. The number of homes has been reduved to 649 but the plans now also include 70 ‘affordable elderly apartments’ as well as a pedestrian and cycle network.
The original application featured two developers — Taylor Wimpey and Redrow — but now only Taylor Wimpey is involved.
A technical summary published by planning consultants Johnson Mowat on behalf of Taylor Wimpey and land agents Anwyl Land says there will be three access roads off Otley Road. It adds:
“At 32 dwellings per hectare this scheme replicates the approved densities on adjoining land and broadly accords with the local plan target of achieving 30 dwellings per hectare.”
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