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13
Aug
Flooding concerns scupper plan for affordable homes in Pateley Bridge
A planning application to build 13 affordable homes in Pateley Bridge has been rejected, largely because of the risk of flooding at the site.
Leeds-based Torsion Homes and RM Hawkesworth & Company Ltd applied to build the homes on the former coal yard property on Greenwood Road, less than 100 metres from the River Nidd.
A document submitted with the application included a map that showed the site was at risk of flooding both from the river and from surface water – in other words, rainfall.
Flood risk to the site from rivers (top) and surface water (bottom). Graphic: Peacock & Smith.
But an assessment prepared by Torsion’s consultant, Peacock & Smith, concluded that there were no viable alternative sites at lower risk of flooding available for development in the town.
North Yorkshire Council’s lead local flood authority objected to the plans, saying Torsion’s flood risk assessment was outdated, and arguing that it had underestimated the volume of surface water impacting the site.
In its decision, published yesterday (Wednesday, August 12) the council’s planning department said that access to the site was susceptible to surface water flooding to a depth of 2.3 metres, concluding:
Residential development of the site is consequently inappropriate due to the impact on the level of residential amenity which any occupier of the dwellings would expect to enjoy, public safety risk, and access difficulties for the emergency services.
It added that the scheme would result in the loss of employment premises, pointed out that some of the properties would have “sub-standard garden areas”, and said that no provision had been made relating to the control of affordable housing tenancies, open space and village hall enhancements, or the maintenance of communal areas.
Applicant RM Hawkesworth of Pateley Bridge was founded as a coal merchant in 1942.
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