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29
Jun 2023
Pannal’s controversial ‘skyscraper’ begins to take shape
An apartment block that will replace the now-demolished Dunlopillo offices in Pannal is beginning to take shape.
Plans submitted by Echo Green Developments to build 38 flats on the site at Station Road were approved by Harrogate Borough Council in February 2022.
However, it will be two-storeys taller than the previous structure which led to ill feeling in the village. Pannal historian Anne Smith said residents would be lumbered with a “skyscraper-type building”.
The decision to approve the scheme was made at officer level and without a vote from councillors.
The frame of the new building.
This provoked Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough Andrew Jones to say the now-abolished council made a mistake with the process by not putting the application before the planning committee.
But the plans weren’t considered by councillors because the application was made under permitted development rights, which were brought in under the Conservative government and can be used by developers to fast track the redevelopment of disused offices.
Cllr Howard West, chairman of Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council, said at the time that planning officers “made errors” and that the parish council had written to the government about it.
Read more:
- Plans approved for 38 flats at ‘Pannal skyscraper’
- Harrogate council should have acted quicker on Dunlopillo housing plans, review finds
How the building will eventually look.
It ultimately led Harrogate Borough Council to launch an internal review into how it handled the application.
The review found it should have acted quicker and a “longer period of time than ideal” was spent on parts of the process.
It also said residents should have been consulted sooner and this could have allowed time for a vote from councillors. Despite this, the council concluded the plans were still “appropriately considered”.
The former Dunlopillo building
Dunlopillo – which makes pillows and bedding – moved out of the site in 2008 when the company went into administration and its former office building fell into disrepair, with residents describing it as a “monstrosity”.
Other parts of the vast site have or currently are being redeveloped, including the construction of the Vida Hall Care Home which opened in 2013 and a residential development by Bellway Homes.
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