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Oct 2021

Last Updated: 22/10/2021

Environment

Government approves controversial 72 homes in Spofforth

by Thomas Barrett

| 25 Oct, 2021

A government planning inspector has approved plans for 72 homes in Spofforth. Harrogate Borough Council rejected the proposal by Yorkshire Housing Ltd in November 2020.

Developers appealed a council decision to refuse a plan for 72 homes in Spofforth.

The government has approved controversial plans for 72 homes in Spofforth. The approval will come as a bitter disappointment to many residents who fought the development.

Yorkshire Housing Ltd has challenged Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to refuse its proposal for the site on Massey Fold.

The developer already had outline permission to build on the site, but councillors turned down an application for appearance and landscaping in November 2020.

Siobhan Watson, a government planning inspector, has given the go-ahead for the proposal.

Ms Watson said in her decision report:

“I find some harm to the character and appearance of the countryside, however, I find the internal layout and detailed design of the proposed housing to be acceptable.”

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She also awarded costs against the council after finding that the authority “behaved unreasonably” and that its reasons for refusal were "vague and illogical".

Ms Watson said:

“Given the site’s planning history, I find the council’s refusal of the application and subsequent defence of the case to be both vague and illogical. I consider that the development should have been clearly permitted and that the council produced vague and generalised assertions about the proposal’s impact which are unsupported by objective analysis.

“The council has therefore behaved unreasonably, and thereby caused the party applying for the costs to incur unnecessary expense in the appeal process.”

The decision follows concerns from local residents over the design and that the housing would not be in keeping with the village.

More than 300 local people and organisations, including Natural England and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, raised concerns about the scheme.

Shirley Fawcett, chairman of Spofforth with Stockeld Parish Council, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson appealing for help in challenging the development.

She said in her letter that the village is “a very blue village but which is seeing red thanks to the government’s planning policies”.

Ms Fawcett added that it “will never be the same” if the appeal is allowed and that the “Sword of Damocles” hung over villagers.

The developer said the borough council had “unreasonably delayed development” at the site and that its case “does not contain any objective analysis that justifies the reason for refusal”.

Yorkshire Housing Ltd declined to comment at this stage.

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Government approves controversial 72 homes in Spofforth

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