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03
Dec 2024
Fears for 'impossible situation' on roads as Harrogate set for another 480 homes
Plans to build 480 homes in Harrogate look set to be approved next week, despite fears about the impact on roads and drainage.
The homes will be built on 68 acres of land between Otley Road, Beckwith Head Road, Howhill Road and Howhill Quarry Road.
New access roads will be built off Otley Road and Beckwith Head Road and a roundabout constructed at the junction of Otley Road and Pot Bank, one kilometre to the west of the site, to accommodate the extra traffic.
The scheme, proposed by government housing agency Homes England, also incorporates football pitches, a cricket pitch and pavilion, car parking, landscaping and open space.
Up to 192 homes would be termed ‘affordable’.
The application forms part of wider plans for 4,000 homes on land allocated for housing in south and west Harrogate.
North Yorkshire Council is expected to approve the scheme next week, despite objections by local parish councils.
Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council said in its objection:
The generation of increased traffic and future traffic flow from the development will only exacerbate an already impossible situation in neighbouring areas, including Pannal and Burn Bridge parish.
A map of the Beckwith Head Road site.
Haverah Park with Beckwithshaw Parish Council’s objection also raised fears the roads would not be able to cope and added:
This document has been generated by the developers without any evidence of due diligence by North Yorkshire Council.
But a report by council case officer Gerard Walsh urges committee members to approve the plans, subject to a Section 106 agreement that sets out conditions the developer must follow.
Mr Walsh’s 64-page report, which you can read here, concludes:
The proposed development will make a valuable contribution to meeting housing need, including the delivery of affordable housing. The impacts of the proposed development on the operation of the highway network, landscape character, heritage, and in all other respects that are material to the consideration of this proposal are considered to be acceptable.
The application will be determined by members of the council’s strategic planning committee in Northallerton on Tuesday next week (December 10) rather than by local councillors in Harrogate and Knaresborough, because of the size of the scheme.
Homes England submitted the planning application to the council in May 2022.
Following the publication of an updated environmental statement and a cumulative transport strategy in August this year, a further round of consultation was carried out.
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