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20
May
Great Ouseburn housing plan attracts 100 objections
One-hundred letters of objection have been submitted against a plan to build more houses in Great Ouseburn.
Headingley-based developer Venturi Homes has applied for consent to build 11 homes – in red brick and with terracotta pantile roofs – in a field between Branton Lane and Seggans Road.
Planning documents submitted to North Yorkshire Council reveal the scheme would include apartments, detached housing and a bungalow.
The developer said the proposal was in a “suitable location for sustainable development”.
However, 100 residents have written to the council to raise concern over flooding, drainage and its impact on the landscape.
The land appears to be flooded in this Google Street view image taken in May 2024.
One resident, Michael Taylor, objected on the grounds that the homes would increase the risk of flooding on surrounding properties.
He said:
The site regularly floods and functions as a natural drainage and flood attenuation area. Developing this land would replace permeable ground with hard surfaces, increasing surface water runoff and risking additional flood pressure on surrounding properties.
This conflicts with the requirement that development must not increase flood risk elsewhere.
in her objection to the plans, resident Alexandra Simpson wrote:
The land in question opposite Branton Lane is often flooded land and any development on it will lead to further flooding on the country road next to it. It is necessary to keep a flood plain for the village.
Venturi Homes applied to build 11 homes on the site in 2018, but the application was refused in 2021.
Reasons for the refusal included “harm to the setting and significance of Great Ouseburn Conservation Area through the loss of open space integral to the character of the conservation area”.
The application was also turned down because the site fell outside the development limit for Great Ouseburn and was not on land allocated for development in the Local Plan.
North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on the latest plans at a later date.
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