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04
Oct
Dishforth residents protest against 98-home plan in village
Residents of Dishforth village, near Boroughbridge, are protesting against plans to build 98 new homes in the area.
Developer Caddick recently proposed a planning application to build the homes on Topcliffe Road in the village.
The company pointed to rising annual housing targets from the government as the reason for the development and said it would help to deliver "much needed new market and affordable homes".
But residents argue that the scheme poses a threat to village life.
Martin Flanagan said:
I don’t see any justification for more houses in Dishforth. To claim that building another 98 homes is ‘proportionate’ just because the village is now larger is nonsensical and taking this approach would mean the village keeps expanding forever.
There are already thousands of homes coming at the Maltkiln development near Cattal. Boroughbridge and Thirsk have grown far beyond what could be called proportionate. In Dishforth, more than 20 houses are currently on the market across all price ranges and between 2011 and 2021, population growth in North Yorkshire was under 5%. Claiming Dishforth ‘needs’ more housing is simply not credible.
A survey distributed around the village by Dishforth Residents Group in July found that 200 of the 216 respondents opposed the development.
The main concerns related to the large recent growth in housing in the village, potential loss of the village’s character, lack of capacity in existing infrastructure, and the environmental impact.
According to residents, Dishforth has seen a 60% growth in the last seven years — with 200 homes being built in 2018 to nearly 350 in 2025. This is largely due to the addition of two large housing estates.
While Caddick admitted the new proposal would increase the village population by 27%, it added that the development was proportionate because of the need for new homes.
Meanwhile, residents also raised concern that a leaflet drop carried out by the developer excluded many homes, including those bordering the site.
Dishforth resident Lindsay Gudgeon said:
Dishforth has provided many new homes to help the UK’s housing crisis in recent years. But as a rural community, built around farming, we need to be realistic.
No additional services were added as a result of the new houses, so we have a very limited public bus service and no shop, meaning everyone has to travel by car to access essential services. Dishforth is not suitable for further development at this scale and I fear the village would be taken away from those of us who moved here to enjoy rural life and turned into a town with no services.
Lichfields, the agent representing Caddick, sent a consultation letter to residents explaining the decisions made.
It said:
Please accept our apologies if not all residents received a copy of the leaflet that was issued. A courier, who we regularly use due to their reliability, was asked to deliver door-to-door to every property within the village. This equated to approximately 390 leaflets. We have been contacted by some residents who advised they did not receive a leaflet but provided feedback via the website or email address during the consultation period.
Caddick has sought to liaise directly with the parish council as, being a body that represents the interests of the community, it was anticipated this would provide the most effective way of understanding the collective views of residents and identifying what we could explore as part of the emerging development proposals, bringing greatest benefit to the community as a whole.
The approach of seeking a collective voice, along with the views of individuals through a dedicated consultation website and a direct email address allowing individuals to provide specific responses, is one which is regularly used effectively in relation to similar types of development.
Details of the feedback that we received will be discussed within a statement of community involvement submitted as part of the future planning application. This will also set out how we have sought to incorporate the suggestions residents made in relation to the emerging proposals.
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