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05
Dec 2023
Council threatens compulsory purchase to rescue 4,000-home Maltkiln scheme
North Yorkshire Council is prepared to compulsory purchase land as a “last resort” so the 4,000-home Maltkiln settlement can be built, according to a report published today.
The potential town and two primary schools would be constructed off the A59 towards York near the villages of Cattal, Whixley, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.
But the future of Maltkiln was thrown into disarray in January when a key landowner, which owns fields around Cattal train station making up around half of the proposed site, pulled out.
The land in question also forms the “village centre” at the heart of Yorkshire-based developer Caddick Group’s vision for the new town.
The scheme does not yet have planning permission but is the largest allocation for housing in the Harrogate district's local plan, which sets out where housebuilding can take place until 2035.
This gives the council a say in how the scheme is developed and officers have been working on a development plan document for several years ahead of a submission to government.
Building homes near the railway station has been the unique selling point of Maltkiln due to its links into York, Harrogate and Leeds.
It was one of the reasons the defunct Harrogate Borough Council picked the Maltkiln area ahead of Flaxby near Knaresborough following a bitter row that lasted years and ended up in the High Court.
But a report that has gone before the council’s Conservative-led executive ahead of a meeting next Tuesday warns that Maltkiln would no longer be deliverable without the land around the station.
It says work on the development plan document might then have to stop, essentially ending the scheme in its current form as the report says the landowner has “made it clear” they don’t want to sell.
To break the impasse, the report says the council would therefore be willing to use a compulsory purchase order as a “last resort” to ensure that Maltkiln is built.
Read more:
- New settlement plans ‘paused’ after land withdrawn near Cattal
- Concern over lack of secondary school at new Harrogate district town
- Almost half of 4,000-home Maltkiln scheme removed
Although it adds there is still a possibility the landowner may yet change its mind and sell up without it getting to that stage.
Officers have explored expanding the boundary of the settlement but concluded this would mean Maltkiln can no longer deliver its “key principle” regarding sustainable travel opportunities for residents at the train station.
It also says changing the boundary of the scheme would be problematic as roads may need to be rerouted.
The report says if the executive resolves to potentially use the council’s compulsory purchase order powers, it would “provide evidence” to government that Maltkiln is still deliverable and work on the development plan document can continue, despite the key landowner refusing to sell.
This would then allow the council to submit the development plan document for inspection by the government’s Planning Inspectorate in 2024.
According to the report, Caddick Group have agreed to discuss underwriting the costs of the CPO.
If the council were to purchase the land through a compulsory purchase order, it could also enter agreements with other developers such as the government’s housing agency Homes England.
The report said:
Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the compulsory purchase order proposal “cannot be justified” and that the council should drop the scheme from its county-wide Local Plan.
Cllr Warneken said:
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