Investigation: Why are there no new schools or GPs despite thousands of new homes in the district?

This article is part of series of investigations into a broken housing system that lets down local people. Please help us investigate more issues that matter to you by becoming a subscriber here. It costs as little as 14p a day.

This week, the Stray Ferret publishes a series of articles investigating how residents in the Harrogate district are being shortchanged by the planning system.

Thousands of homes have been built locally in recent years — but what has happened to pledges of new schools, roads and health centres to compensate for their impact?

Our investigation discovered incomplete housing developments and financial commitments left hanging in the air, causing confusion and concerns about over-crowded classrooms, over-congested roads and under-resourced bus and cycling provision.

We speak to people who have spent years trying to get answers from an arcane system few understand, and which seems designed to frustrate.

We found:

• Promises of new schools in Harrogate that haven't materialised.
• A Ripon resident who resorted to counting the number of homes occupied on a new housing estate to see if community payments were due.
• The case of the missing primary school and community centre in Knaresborough.
• A mill conversion into 50 luxury flats near Pateley Bridge which ground to a halt amid a row over community payments and claims people had been “conned all the way down the line”.

We have spent months investigating the opaque world of Section 106 agreements.

These legal agreements between councils and developers outline what funds and services will compensate for the impact of new houses on local infrastructure.

But years after they are signed, people are often left wondering what happened to the promises. Even residents’ groups and councillors find it almost impossible tracking payments.

With Labour planning to ramp-up housebuilding, and Harrogate considered ripe for speculative developers, it’s more important than ever that residents have confidence in a system that delivers on their behalf.

Read our articles, starting today with a look at the situation in Harrogate and an Explainer feature, and let us know what you think. You can comment below or email us at contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

This is part of a series of Stray Ferret articles on Section 106 agreements supported by the Public Interest News Foundation, which promotes the value of independent local news providers.