Green Hammerton gets final approval for 3,000-home settlement

The long-running saga over where to build a 3,000-home settlement in the Harrogate district appears to be over, with Green Hammerton selected ahead of Flaxby.

Harrogate Borough Council last night voted to adopt its Local Plan, the planning blueprint for the district, which includes Green Hammerton as the site of the new settlement.

It was the second time the council voted on the matter, after a High Court judge last month ordered it to do so again.

Just like last time, the full council voted in favour of Green Hammerton, this time by a near-unanimous decision.

This appears to have ended any hopes of building at Flaxby, near the A1.

Nick Brown, Conservative councillor for Bishop Monkton and Newby, was the only person to vote against the recommendation.

Cllr Brown said he felt Flaxby was a more sustainable option and he would therefore vote against the Local Plan. He said:

“Flaxby is the best site still, and I feel saddened for the thousands of residents in Green Hammerton who will be so badly and necessarily affected by the new town site.”

Norman Waller, Conservative councillor for Marston Moor, abstained.

High Court battle

Mr Justice Holgate ordered the re-vote after a three-day judicial review between the council and Flaxby Park Ltd, which planned to build on the former Flaxby golf course.

The judge ruled in the council’s favour by saying the decision to select Green Hammerton did not have to be made again.

But he said the council had to vote again to adopt its Local Plan after considering a report known as a strategic environmental assessment, which was not put before the full council when the plan was first adopted in March 2020.

The judge said this “legal flaw” invalidated the adoption of the Local Plan.

Before the vote, cabinet member for planning councillor Tim Myatt conceded that Flaxby Park Ltd “landed a punch” on the issue of the strategic environmental assessment, but he added it was a “procedural error” that could be rectified.

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He said he hoped councillors “share my regret” that they were being asked to vote on the Local Plan again, after less than a year.

He added:

“The reason we are here is simple. A site developer was unsuccessful with a proposal for a new settlement in the district.

“When the planning inspector didn’t provide the result they wanted, they went to a judicial review to try and quash the new settlement policies within the plan. If that had happened our Local Plan would have fallen in total.

“The Local Plan process was a long and complicated one. Many controversial decisions about where homes would be built had to be made. There were few easy decisions.

“Across the district, we’ve seen the impact of not having a plan can have, but that does not mean getting an agreement on a plan is or was easy.”

Now councillors are satisfied the report would not have affected their decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby, it should finally put to bed the question of where the new settlement will be built.

A public consultation on options for the Green Hammerton / Cattal settlement will run until January 22.

 

Flaxby and Green Hammerton saga could be concluded next week

A report evaluating the environmental implications of building 3,000 homes in either Green Hammerton or Flaxby will be considered by councillors next week.

It follows a High Court ruling last week in the long-running saga about Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the site for a major new settlement in the district.

Mr Justice Holgate ruled in the council’s favour by saying the decision did not have to be made again.

But he said the full council did have to consider the report, known as a strategic environmental assessment, before it could proceed.

The council has wasted no time preparing the document: its cabinet will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to adopt the report as part of its Local Plan. The full council will then vote on it later that day.

If councillors are satisfied the report would not have affected their decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby, it would correct the “legal error” that Mr Justice Holgate identified in the judicial review and finally put to bed the question of where the new settlement will be built.

Legal costs

The judge did, however, order Harrogate Borough Council to pay 15% of the legal costs of Flaxby Park Ltd, which brought the case against the council, as well as its own.

A spokesperson from Flaxby Park Ltd told the Stray Ferret it expected the council would have to pay it a “significant five-figure sum”.

The Stray Ferret has asked the council how much it estimated its legal costs to be. The council replied it did not yet have a final figure.

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Public consultation

Meanwhile, a public consultation on the Green Hammerton/Cattal settlement proposals is running until January 22.

Following the judicial review judgement last week, campaign group Keep Green Hammerton Green released a statement urging the council to pause the consultation due to impending local government reorganisation and government planning reforms.

A council spokesman said:

“There are no plans to stop the current consultation on the development plan document.

“We urge residents and community groups to continue to share their views on what specific requirements are needed to deliver these much needed new homes for existing and future residents of the district.”

Could Flaxby now become a 400-lodge eco-resort?

The owners of the former Flaxby golf course could attempt to create a 400-lodge eco-resort on the site after their hopes of building 3,000 homes there were dashed last week.

A High Court judge ruled last week that Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby as the site of a new 3,000-home settlement does not have to be made again.

This decision could prompt Flaxby Park to instigate alternative plans to transform the site into a tourism resort.

A report published by planning consultants Lichfields on behalf of Flaxby Park this year outlines a vision to transform the golf course, which closed in 2015, into a “sustainable eco-resort”.

The report claims the resort could generate £35m a year of visitor spending and employ 600 full-time staff.

As well as the 400 eco-lodges, the proposals include an indoor sports area, paddle boarding and boating, a swimming pool, a spa, shops and restaurants.

An aerial view of the Flaxby site.

According to the report, the “driving principle” of the resort is to allow families to “reconnect with nature, providing an ecologically rich environment” using renewable energy.

It says:

“The development of this unique, environmentally conscious eco-lodge holiday complex would generate significant benefits for the local economy and that of the wider region.”

Plans for the eco-resort have not yet been submitted to the council, but they would be a major addition to district tourism if they came to fruition.

A spokesperson from Flaxby Park confirmed to the Stray Ferret the eco-resort was a potential option for the golf course.

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Flaxby Park Ltd has owned the site since April 2016. Previous owner the Skelworth Group had planning permission to build a 300-bedroom, five-star hotel but the company went out of business before the plans materialised.

In separate plans, Harrogate company Forward Investment already has outline planning permission for an eco-friendly business park immediately south of the golf course at the junction of the A59 and A1M.

 

 

Flaxby fails to stop Green Hammerton development at High Court

A High Court judge has ruled that Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby for up to 3,000 homes in the district does not have to be made again.

The developer, Flaxby Park Ltd, argued at a Judicial Review last month that the council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton for 3,000 homes was based on a flawed process.

Representing Flaxby, Christopher Katkowski QC raised three objections about the way the council came to make their decision.

He said:

  1. Environmental and sustainability assessments were not brought back before councillors to help them make a decision.
  2. The council failed to include an additional 630 hectares of land in the assessment of Flaxby as a broad location.
  3. The Green Hammerton proposals were not financially viable.

In a judgement published today, Mr Justice Holgate ruled in favour of HBC on the second and third points. However, he said that an environmental and sustainability report regarding the proposals would have to go back before the full council.

He said because this report wasn’t produced at the time, it “rendered unlawful” the new settlement policies at the adoption stage of the Local Plan. It means the council will have to vote again to rectify the “legal error” to address the issue of the sustainability report.

The judgement could potentially put to bed what has been one of the most bitter planning disputes to hit Harrogate in decades.

In his conclusion, Mr Justice Holgate said:

“In my judgment there was no error in the local plan process up to and including the conclusion of the examination process.”

Harrogate Borough Council welcomed the judgement and said an updated sustainability report will be brought to full council “as soon as possible”.

A council spokesman said:

“The judge is clear there were no flaws in the development of the local plan, the process was fair and equal, and that sufficient evidence had been put forward in relation to the new settlement.

“He has ruled that the plan does not need to be quashed in part, or full, saying that would be ‘wholly unjustifiable’.

“The court’s view is there was a single procedural issue because specific attention was not drawn to an updated sustainability appraisal when adoption of the local plan was discussed by councillors, even though the document was in the public domain at the time.

“The judge stated that although Flaxby Park Limited has been successful, in-part, to Ground 1 they had mounted a ‘time-consuming and costly attack on the local plan process’ and had ‘failed in achieving what was plainly the main object or thrust of the challenge.”

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Flaxby Park Ltd released a statement to the Stray Ferret this afternoon also claiming victory.

Chris Musgrave, chief executive at Flaxby Park Ltd, said:

“Flaxby Park Limited (FPL) are delighted that we have been successful in winning our Judicial Review challenge.

“HBC did not take into account vital information such as the sustainability appraisal and the detail of the consultation process. As a result, the councillors did not have all of the relevant information which would allow them to form a sound judgement on the merits of the community settlement issue.

“Council officers have a duty to provide council members with the fullest information and this has not been the case. As a result, the decision making of elected officials in the context of Flaxby Park has been flawed.

“The judgement by Mr Justice Holgate has confirmed that HBC acted unlawfully by adopting the Local Plan and we note that an order has been made by the Judge for HBC to pay their own legal costs as well as a proportion of the costs incurred by FPL. This speaks volumes as to the validity of our successful legal challenge.”
High Court hearing opens into Green Hammerton homes

A High Court hearing into Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to pick Green Hammerton over Flaxby for its local plan has begun today.

Mr Justice Holgate opened the judicial review case, which is being held remotely due to coronavirus.

Representing the developer, Christopher Katkowski QC set out his submission that sufficient comparisons were not made for both sites early on and that assessments did not show that the Green Hammerton site was viable.

He said that the Flaxby site was not given “equal treatment” to the council’s eventual preferred option of Green Hammerton.

Mr Katkowski said there was no “apples and apples” sustainability assessment of the sites as “broad locations” before the local plan was submitted for examination to the planning inspector.

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He told the hearing that, despite the comparison being made later, the work was carried out under officer delegation and was not put before councillors to reconsider.

He said:

“Councillors should have been given the opportunity to consider this work at a stage when it could have made a difference.”

Mr Katkowski also told the court that assessments in front of the inspector showed the Green Hammerton location was “marginal” in terms of viability.

He added that Oakgate, one of the promoters of the site, had submitted a confidential assessment to the council but this was not put in front of the inspector.

Mr Katkowski said it was either “perverse” that the inspector concluded that the site was viable with the information available to him or “perverse not to call for sight of the assessments to reach a properly informed judgement”.

Paul Brown QC, representing Harrogate Borough Council, said officers had delegated powers “through the examination period” up until the inspector’s report was returned to the council.

Mr Brown said both the submission of the plan and the adoption were made by councillors, but delegated powers would need to be used for other decisions for practicality reasons.

He said:

“It does not follow that because the process is bookended by those two decisions that everything between those points must be.”

Mr Brown added that planning officers considered both sites following the second comparison and other reasonable alternatives.

He said his “overarching submission” was that there was nothing unlawful in the delegation of powers to officers.

Mr Brown will continue his submission tomorrow (October 28). The hearing continues.

Flaxby vs Green Hammerton: the saga so far…

This week, a judge at the High Court in London will decide whether Harrogate Borough Council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton and Cattal ahead of Flaxby for a major expansion of housing in the district was unlawful.

If the ruling goes against the council, it could mean the decision has to be made again.

It is a saga that has rumbled on for years with many twists and turns. Below is a timeline of events so far.

August 2003: North Yorkshire County Council sells land at Green Hammerton to farmer Derek Pickles. When the council sold the land, there was a covenant attached that said if planning permission were granted within 30 years for any other use of the site, a “clawback” would apply. This would result in NYCC receiving 70% of the uplift in the land’s open market value.

2008: Farming family the Armstrongs sells Flaxby golf course to the Skelwith Group for £7m, which then publishes plans for a 300-bedroom five-star hotel on the site. The golf course and hotel would be called Flaxby Country Resort and is touted as the “jewel in Yorkshire’s tourism crown” and even a future host of the Ryder Cup.

March 2010: Harrogate Borough Council grants planning permission for the hotel but building work never begins. Despite this, 158 buy-to-let rooms in the hotel are sold to investors.

An artist’s impression of the doomed Flaxby hotel.

May 2014: The government rejects Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan for the district, after years of preparation. The council begins the process of identifying more sites for housing.

November 2014: Skelwith Group abandons plans to build a hotel and draws up new proposals to develop Flaxby into a new town of up to 2,500 homes.

March 2015: The golf course closes.

January 2016: Skelwith goes into liquidation. A report from administrators RSM Restructuring says the company owed almost £70m, including £51m to HMRC and £7m to former owners the Armstrong family.

April 2016: Flaxby Park Ltd, a company made up of businesswoman Ann Gloag and regeneration specialists Chris Musgrave and Trevor Cartner, purchases the 260-acre golf course site from administrators. Their new proposals include 2,750 homes and a rail link at Goldsborough.

Summer 2016: HBC launches a “call for sites” where landowners can put forward sites that could potentially fit a new settlement. Both Flaxby Park Ltd and CEG Group propose separate developments at Flaxby and Green Hammerton.

November 2016: HBC’s draft Local Plan identifies two locations for a new settlement: Flaxby and Green Hammerton/Cattal.

April 2017: CEG Group publishes a “vision document” for 3,000 homes at Green Hammerton.

A CGI image from the CEG proposal at Green Hammerton.

July, August, September 2017: A consultation is held where CEG’s Great Hammerton plans are presented as the preferred option over Flaxby Park.

November 2017: Flaxby Park Ltd submits a planning application for the 2,750-home development to HBC.

December 2017: At a full council meeting, councillors agree to submit the Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate, including Green Hammerton as the area for the new settlement.

January and February 2018: HBC holds a public consultation on this decision. Campaigners in Green Hammerton deliver more than 600 objections against it.

Campaigners deliver Green Hammerton objections to HBC.

June 2018: CEG Group formally submits its plans to HBC for Green Hammerton.

August 2018: Harrogate Council submits its Local Plan for independent examination.

February 2019: Oakgate Group, part of Wetherby-based property developers Caddick, submits plans for a rival proposal called “Maltkiln Village” at Cattal.

The “Maltkiln Village” proposal around Cattal railway station.

March 2020:  HBC adopts its new Local Plan with Green Hammerton/Cattal identified as the location for a new settlement.

October 7, 2020: HBC agrees to press ahead with a consultation on 3,000 new homes at Green Hammerton/Cattal. Its “preferred option” is land around Cattal rail station.

October 13, 2020: HBC’s planning committee rejects the 2,750-home Flaxby development. The other two applications – by CEG and Oakgate Group – are yet to be decided by the committee.

October 27, 28 and 29, 2020: The High Court judicial review will take place on the Flaxby decision.

The Stray Ferret will be covering the Judicial Review this week at the High Court. Check our website for the latest updates, or subscribe to our newsletter to get a daily round-up direct to your inbox.

Judicial review looms after 2,750-home Flaxby development refused

Councillors took an hour this afternoon to refuse an application for up to 2,750 homes on the former Flaxby golf course, near Knaresborough.

Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee rejected the plans because they contravene its Local Plan, which chose Green Hammerton and Cattal as the location for a new settlement instead of Flaxby.

The Flaxby proposals also include a retirement village and two primary schools, as well as retail and office space.

The developer, Flaxby Park Ltd, is challenging HBC’s decision at a judicial review, which will take place at the High Court in London this month.

Cllr Robert Windass questioned why the planning committee had been asked to decide on Flaxby now, just weeks before the judicial review. He said the council should postpone any decision until after the judicial review takes place.

But his request was rebuffed by HBC’s chief planner, John Worthington, who said the planning committee and the judicial review were “two very separate processes”.

Cllr Christine Willoughby, who spoke representing Knaresborough Town Council, said the development would have a negative impact on the market town.

She said:

“The town council objects to this application as there would be a serious detrimental impact to health services, educational and recreational services of Knaresborough. Any economic benefit [to Knaresborough] would be small.”

Alex Smith, a member of the public, urged councillors to defer the Flaxby decision until the Green Hammerton development plan document was more fully developed.

He said the Flaxby development was “more sustainable” than Green Hammerton, which he said would require significant infrastructure investment. He said:

“We have a disused golf course and an existing dual carriageway here, now and ready to go. Why discard that site now?”

Eight councillors voted to refuse the plans. Two abstained.

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The judicial review will take place on October 27, 28, and 29 at the High Court in London.

Flaxby Park Ltd has claimed the council’s decision to choose Green Hammerton was based on “flawed information of a scant, conflicting and contradictory nature”.

A judge will decide whether the decision was lawful and followed the correct procedure.

If found to be unlawful, the decision on where to place the new settlement may have to be made again.

Meanwhile, HBC is pressing ahead with plans for Green Hammerton and last week rubber-stamped a public consultation that is expected to take place later this year.

Campaign group has ‘grave concerns’ about consultation on 3,000 homes

A campaign group has said it has “grave concerns” about a forthcoming consultation by Harrogate Borough Council on plans to build 3,000 homes near Green Hammerton.

The council is set to agree plans for a new settlement at a cabinet meeting tomorrow. It is also likely to agree details of a consultation process.

Land south of Cattal train station has been identified as the preferred option for the development.

But Chris Eaton, from Keep Green Hammerton Green, disputed the council’s claim it had engaged with stakeholders in drawing up its plans.

In a letter to cabinet member for planning, Cllr Rebecca Burnett, seen by the Stray Ferret, Mr Eaton said he was writing “to express our disappointment and grave concern about the process of creating the new settlement development plan document”.

He said the council’s preferred option had been chosen without input from local residents.

His letter said:

“For your officers to say in cabinet papers that there has been some engagement is highly misleading.

“We believe that you have a moral obligation, if not a legal one, to fulfil your promise and to urgently facilitate meaningful engagement with those communities most affected by the new settlement.”

The development plan document, which councillors will consider at tomorrow’s meeting, establishes the boundary of the settlement, contains details on the types of houses available and outlines where new roads could be built.

It was chosen after planning consultants Gillespies produced a report for the council setting out three possible sites.

The cabinet will discuss the report tomorrow and potentially begin a consultation later this year.

According to HBC, there has been stakeholder engagement on its preferred option.

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Responding to Mr Eaton’s letter, a HBC spokesperson said:

“This new settlement will provide an opportunity to deliver much-needed quality homes as well as associated facilities so it is vital that the local community are involved.

“We plan on carrying out a thorough consultation on the new settlement development plan document and welcome residents’ views.”

HBC’s decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby for a new settlement will be examined at a judicial review, which will take place on October 27, 28, and 29 at the High Court in London.

If found to be unlawful, the decision on where to place the new settlement may have to made again.

HBC’s planning committee is expected to reject the 2,750-home Flaxby development on October 13.

The date has been pushed back a week after a “technical error” meant the developer Flaxby Park Ltd was not informed.

Council prepares for 3,000-home Green Hammerton consultation

Harrogate Borough Council is preparing a public consultation on the location of 3,000 new homes to be built near the villages of Green Hammerton and Cattal.

Planning consultant Gillespies has produced a report for the council setting out three possible sites for the development, including a preferred option on land south of Cattal train station.

Along with the housing, the plans include two new primary schools, employment space and retail units.

HBC’s cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss the report and potentially approve a consultation that would begin later this year.

In February, developers Oakgate Group submitted plans to HBC for Maltkin Village, a scheme near to Cattal.

The three new settlement options to be discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday are below. The orange colour indicates where the new housing would be built, green indicates green spaces and purple indicates employment space. Blue shows where the “local centre” of the development would be.

Meanwhile, plans submitted in 2017 for 2,750 new homes at Flaxby which were due to be discussed by planners on Tuesday will now be heard at a later date. The developer, Flaxby Park Ltd, had not been informed of the committee date due to a “technical error”.

A council spokesperson said “as a gesture of goodwill” the authority would offer the developer more time to prepare. A new date is yet to be set.

Option One

This option focuses on the area north of the railway line between Cattal and Hammerton train stations and incorporates the village edges of Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.

Option One – ‘Central Focus’

Option Two

This option focuses on the area north of the railway line around Cattal station, with the majority of the development located south of the A59.

Option Two – ‘North of Cattal Station Focus’

Option Three

This option focuses on the area around Cattal station expanding towards the south and southwest of the railway line. This is the current preferred option, according to the report to be discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday.

Option Three – ‘Cattal Station Focus’

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‘Clawback’

A report written in 2017 by Gary Fielding, corporate director for strategic resources at North Yorkshire County Council, revealed that the county council would make money on some land at Green Hammerton if it were developed.

The report states that in 2003, NYCC sold land at Green Hammerton to farmer Derek Pickles. When the council sold the land, there was a covenant attached that said if planning permission were granted within 30 years for any other use of the property, a “clawback” would apply. This would result in NYCC receiving 70% of the uplift in the land’s open market value.

The land owned by Derek Pickles is highlighted in purple.

According to the report published by Gillespies, the land owned by Mr Pickles, which is close to the village of Green Hammerton, would primarily fall into options one and two and not the preferred option around Cattal train station.

Harrogate Borough Council adopted its Local Plan in March 2020 and chose Green Hammerton as the broad location for a new settlement in the district.

However, the choice has been contested by Flaxby Park Ltd, which wants to create a new village on a former golf course to the east of Knaresborough.

As reported in the Stray Ferret yesterday, Harrogate Borough Council will head to the High Court in London later this month for a judicial review that will decide whether or not the decision to choose Green Hammerton over Flaxby for a new settlement was unlawful.

If found to be unlawful, the decision on where to place the new settlement may have to made again.

Knaresborough employment site ‘that could support 2,000 jobs’ sold

A 38-acre employment site near Knaresborough that could support 2,000 jobs has been sold for an undisclosed fee.

Ilkey property developer Opus North and London-based fund manager Bridges Fund Management have bought the site from a private individual.

They say the development could make a “significant contribution” to the local economy.

The site, located south-west of junction 47 of the A1(M) near to Flaxby Park is allocated as an employment site in Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan, which sets out the area’s policy and planning framework until 2035.

The site benefits from existing planning permission for over half a million square feet of development for employment uses.

The two companies will now develop a masterplan for the site, alongside stakeholders including Harrogate Borough Council, which “maximises its job-creating potential”.

An Opus North spokesperson told the Stray Ferret a decision on what type of employment the site could support will be made at a future date.

An outline planning application will be submitted to HBC later this year.

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Ryan Unsworth, development director of Opus North, said:

“This is a site with clear potential to make a significant contribution to the local economy through job creation and also through the delivery of high-quality office and logistics accommodation to meet existing and future market demand.

“With our joint venture partner, we are in a position to bring this development to life and are looking forward to continuing our discussions with both the council and local stakeholders to create an exemplar development to address the local and regional shortages of employment space.”