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07
Feb
Possible new housing sites in Knaresborough revealed
North Yorkshire Council has published a map of sites put forward for the county’s Local Plan. The blueprint will determine housing and employment land for the next 15 to 20 years.
The council has stressed that no assessment of sites have been completed at this stage and land submitted may not necessarily be taken forward as part of the Local Plan process.
You can read about the sites put forward for Knaresborough below.
Although fewer sites have been submitted for Knaresborough than neighbouring Harrogate, some of the land is significant in size.
For example, a 65-hectare site at Hall Farm, Hay-a-Park, has been put forward for housing.
A 10-hectare site at Market Flat Lane in Scriven and a 12-hectare plot to the south of Bar Lane have also been proposed for residential schemes.
In addition to this, opposite the new build Trinity Field development south of the A59, a plot of land has been submitted for commercial development.
The Hall Farm site near Trinity Fields.
Further down the A59 York Road, land at Flaxby Park has been submitted for both commercial and housing purposes.
The 113-hectare site was subject to High Court legal proceedings in October 2020.
At the time, the developers, Flaxby Park Ltd, took the former Harrogate Borough Council to a judicial review when the authority opted to pick a site in Green Hammerton over Flaxby Park for a new settlement.
The Flaxby Park site.
Following the hearing, Mr Justice Holgate ruled in the council's favour by saying it did not have to make the decision over a new settlement again.
But he ordered the council to pay 15% of Flaxby’s legal costs because it failed to adequately consider an environmental assessment of alternative locations for the settlement.
Now, it appears the land has been put forward for a second time under the new Local Plan.
The land included in the council’s map is for land submitted up until December 2024 following its call for sites. More land will be added on a six monthly basis.
The authority has stressed that the sites included in the map may not be taken into the Local Plan and that no assessment work has been completed at this stage.
It added:
The call for sites process is separate to the planning application process and the submission of a site for consideration does not necessarily mean that the site will be taken forward.
It is often the case that more sites will be submitted at this stage than are needed to meet the future needs of the area.
A public consultation on the sites will be held at a later date.
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