Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Aldred has issued a plea for Harrogate Borough Council to halt a controversial planning application for 181 homes on Kingsley Drive in Starbeck.
At a full council meeting last night, Cllr Aldred asked Conservative cabinet member for planning, Cllr Tim Myatt, if he would consider issuing a ‘moratorium’ on the plans, which were submitted this week by Persimmon Homes.
It is the third time the developer has submitted a proposal at the location, which used to form part of Kingsley Farm. A larger application for 217 homes was rejected by councillors in August.
Cllr Aldred, who currently represents the Fairfax ward, cited government Housing Delivery Test figures that revealed Harrogate Borough Council has exceeded its housebuilding target by almost 1,700 homes over the last three years.
He said he attended a meeting of Kingsley residents last month to discuss the application and heard how various housing schemes have heaped “misery” on local residents due to the disruption caused.
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Cllr Aldred said:
“We’ve met the target, so would the cabinet member be prepared to consider an immediate moratorium halting the proposed development of a further 181 homes that went into planning yesterday?
“It’s greatly affecting the physical and mental health of Kingsley residents.”
‘Intense period of development’
In response, Cllr Myatt, who represents High Harrogate on the council, said he had “great sympathy” for people affected by the “intense period of development” in the ward.
But he said over the past six years, the council was still below the housing need target identified in the council’s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-2035, which maps out where development can take place until 2034.
Cllr Tim Myatt
The government and the council’s Local Plan have different housebuilding targets for the district.
Cllr Myatt said:
“I have been speaking with residents regularly about this application and about what I think the weaknesses are.
“We have a Local Plan, which was adopted recently. It has a target for local need for the past six years. It’s around 690 homes per year. If you look at those figures, we haven’t exceeded that target over the past six years, in fact we are slightly below it.”
Local Plan
The Local Plan was adopted in 2020 but can be reviewed after five years.
Cllr Myatt confirmed that officers are already working on the review, which could see some sites removed if it is deemed the housing need for the district has changed.
Cllr Myatt added:
“Can I order a cease of planning applications? That simply wouldn’t hold up on a national level and I think the councillor knows that, he was just trying to get me to say no. It’s not something within my gift to cease housing applications, if I tried to do so, it would be overturned nationally.
“Our Local Plan is in place, it was voted on by this council and received a strong approval.”
