Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
29
Apr
Maltkiln could be a 'hell of a place to live' without sufficient infrastructure, warns councillor
Insufficient infrastructure will be built to cope with the number of new residents in the early stages of work on a new 3,000-home community near Knaresborough, it has been claimed.
Developer Caddick has submitted updated planning documents for the proposed Maltkiln Village development, which would be built around Cattal railway station, between Knaresborough and York.
The paperwork includes an infrastructure delivery plan, setting out how infrastructure and highways improvements will be delivered in step with the development of the new village.
The work includes a new roundabout on the A59 to increase safety and improve access for motorists.
The documents also include more information on proposed building designs, street layouts, green spaces and materials.
Caddick says it has undertaken further public consultation since North Yorkshire Council approved the development framework for the scheme last month,
Speaking about the proposals, Chris Procter, director at Caddick, said:
We are pleased to have reached this important milestone with the submission of an updated suite of planning application documents to North Yorkshire Council for Maltkiln Village.
A significant amount of work has gone into shaping a proposal that delivers a new settlement built on the core principles of sustainability, connectivity and community.
But North Yorkshire councillor Arnold Warneken, who represents the Ouseburn division – which includes the proposed development site – said he continues to have “major, concerns” about the scheme.
Cllr Arnold Warneken.
The Green Party councillor says schools, GP services and the sewage system in the surrounding villages were already under intense pressure from the existing number of residents and new housing already in the planning system.
The councillor is worried that house building will take place on the Maltkiln scheme without sufficient infrastructure in place for the occupants.
He added:
On paper, the phasing contained in the delivery plan looks reasonable. But I do think if we’re not careful, we’re just going to put extreme pressures on aspects of the infrastructure and the facilities on site.
I’m worried it will get to the point where it might be all singing, all dancing, ecological and climate-friendly, but it’s going to be a hell of a place to live, because you won’t have a doctor and the local primary school will be bursting at the seams because a new one hasn’t been built.
The councillor said he was also concerned that planning permission had not yet been agreed for a new site for the Johnsons of Whixley wholesale nursery, which is due to move to make way for the new community.
He added:
There are all these things that still haven’t been resolved.
For more information on the Maltkiln scheme, visit the Maltkiln Village website.
0