Harrogate Borough Council has refused a bid to build a luxury eco-resort with 350 lodges on the former Flaxby golf course.
The plans included a hotel, outdoor swimming pool, spa and sports area as well as a pub/cafe, farm shop, gift shop and activity hub.
The developer Flaxby Park Ltd had previously said the resort would attract “the most discerning visitors” and would have a focus on sustainability to allow families to “reconnect with nature”.
But council planning officer Kate Broadbank said the development would have a negative impact on the district’s natural environment as well as harming views from the nearby Temple of Victory, which is Grade II* listed.
The golf course, off the A59 and A1(M), closed in 2014 and has been derelict ever since.
Ms Broadbank wrote:
“The scale and layout are considered to have an unacceptable adverse impact upon the district’s natural and historic environment.
“In addition, the application site is not considered to be accessible to local services nor is it demonstrated that an acceptable connection to public utilities can be achieved.”
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The application generated 31 objections, including one from Knaresborough Town Council which feared the hotel would never be built and the site would be re-marketed as a residential development.
An aerial computer generated image of the proposal. The A1 (M) is to the east and the A59 is to the south.
The council added:
“The applicants seem to have no experience of running a holiday park, have no proven business case and have not considered the constant traffic noise from the adjacent motorway.”
The Stray Ferret has approached Flaxby Park Ltd for a response but we had not received one by the time of publication.
History of the site
In 2008 The Skelwith Group bought the site from farming family the Armstrongs for £7m. It published plans for a 300-bedroom five-star hotel on the site that it touted as the future “jewel in Yorkshire’s tourism crown”.
But in 2016 the company went out of business after these plans never materialised.
Flaxby Park Ltd is a company made up of businesswoman Ann Gloag and regeneration specialists Chris Musgrave and Trevor Cartner.
It bought the 260-acre golf course site from administrators in 2016.
Its original proposal for the site was to build 2,750 homes and a rail link at Goldsborough. But these plans ended after the council chose the Green Hammerton area as the site for a new settlement in the district.
In October 2020, the developer challenged the council’s decision in the High Court but was unable to overturn it.
