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Jul 2022

Last Updated: 29/07/2022

Environment

Residents criticise key Harrogate planning document as 'incoherent'

by Calvin Robinson

| 31 Jul, 2022

A residents group has criticised a key council planning document for the West of Harrogate as “lacking detail” and “incoherent”.

A residents group has criticised a key council planning document for the West of Harrogate as lacking detail and “incoherent”.

The West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy was due for completion in May – but Harrogate Borough Council has now said it expects it to be published before the end of the year.

It forms part of the wider proposals for the area and builds upon the West Harrogate Parameters Plan, which sets out how the area’s infrastructure and services will cope with 4,000 new homes.

Residents said they were disappointed after a meeting earlier this month over some of the proposals in the delivery strategy.

The Western Arc Coordination Group brings together organisations including Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Association, Duchy Residents’ Association, Hampsthwaite Action Group, Zero Carbon Harrogate, Harrogate District Cycle Action and Pannal & Burn Bridge Parish Council.

After the meeting with the council, the group said:

“On the day, we were asked to provide comments on a document that only consisted of a series of diagrams in relation to a number of road junctions without any supporting data. The whole of this work came over as incoherent and lacking any real structure.

“After more than two years we would have expected far more detail than we were presented with and we still have real concerns that the end result of all this time (more than two years) and work will not bring about any significant improvements to overall infrastructure or tackle the existing, and increasing, traffic problems. At the very least we would have expected clear statements on why this work is being done and what it will achieve.

“Our argument has always been that the end result of all the West Harrogate Parameters Plan (WHPP) and associated works should be a series of mitigations that prevents the overall infrastructure problems from getting any worse, and preferably should also help overcome some of the existing problems.”

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West Harrogate was identified for major expansion during the creation of the district’s Local Plan when a government inspector ordered the parameters plan to be made.

Once complete, both the delivery strategy and parameters plan will be used together to shape decisions on how west Harrogate will cope with 2,500 new homes – although as many as 4,000 properties are set to be built in the wider area by 2035.

A borough council spokesperson said the meeting was held to help design the strategy and further consultation will take place with residents groups later in the year.

In response to the concerns, they said:

“The West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy (WHIDS) document – that is designed to help the long term co-ordination of infrastructure across the West Harrogate sites – will be signed-off later in the year.

“The information sessions recently held are helping shape this document, along with the support and guidance from technical officers and our appointed consultants.

“There will be further targeted engagement with stakeholders later in the year before the documents are signed off.

“This engagement, will also help inform other working draft documents such as the cumulative transport strategy, which will be subject to public consultation before any decisions are made on live planning applications in West Harrogate.”

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Residents criticise key Harrogate planning document as 'incoherent'

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