Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
17
Aug
Leeds council raises concern over education funding for 210 homes near Spofforth
Leeds City Council has raised concern over education funding for a planned 210-home site on the North Yorkshire border.
The 13-hectare site lies within the former Harrogate district – so legally in North Yorkshire – but in practice would form an extension of Wetherby, which is in West Yorkshire and served by Leeds City Council.
Hallam Land Management, which is based in Sheffield, submitted the proposal to North Yorkshire Council in June last year.
The controversial plan has attracted hundreds of objections from residents concerned about traffic and the character of the area.
Councillors on North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee deferred a decision on the plans at a meeting on August 11 amid late representations on the proposals.
The proposed development would be on the edge of Wetherby, but falls within North Yorkshire.
Now, Leeds City Council has said proposals for a Section 106 legal agreement on the plans do not address the impact on education in Wetherby.
Section 106 agreements outline what payments developers have to make to compensate for the impact of new homes on local services.
Kathryn Holloway, from the council’s strategic planning department, said in a letter to North Yorkshire Council that the authority’s concerns “do not appear to be explicitly addressed within the proposed planning obligations”.
The current plans would see the developer make more than £2 million in contributions towards local education, including primary and secondary.
However, Ms Holloway said the contributions appeared to indicate that the funds would be secured for North Yorkshire.
She said:
Leeds City Council's original response requested that appropriate mechanisms be put in place to ensure that cross-boundary impacts affecting Leeds infrastructure and services could be appropriately mitigated.
It is not currently clear how the education impacts would be addressed through the arrangements described in the report.
Councillors on North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee are expected to discuss the plan at a later date after the proposal was deferred at a previous meeting.
A visual of the homes from a bridleway off Harrogate Road, as included in the plans.
The land, to the north of the A661 road between Harrogate and Wetherby, abuts the edge of the Spofforth Park residential development by Bellway at Ingbarrow Gate.
In a planning statement supporting the application, development consultancy Lichfields, acting on behalf of the applicants, pointed out that there is a presumption in favour of sustainable development set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.
However, residents submitted more than 360 letters of objections against the proposal.
Many objectors said the plan would see residents rely on Wetherby for roads, schools and amenities rather than North Yorkshire. One resident said the scheme would lead to "the death of Wetherby”.
Leeds City Council also objected to the plan and raised concern that the site would primarily affect Wetherby’s housing need.
In the report before a council planning committee meeting, Sam Binney, case officer at North Yorkshire Council, pointed out that the area had a “a significant shortfall in housing land supply”.
0