Former Harrogate farm to be demolished and replaced with housingResidents say new Granby Farm homes will ‘tower over’ them

Residents who live adjacent to the 95-home Granby Farm development have complained to Harrogate Borough Council about the height of some of the new properties being built, saying they will “tower over them”.

The council investigated the complaint and found Redrow Homes breached planning rules at the development by starting to build 15 houses before receiving the correct planning approval.

Outline planning permission for the development was granted in April 2021. It will be called Granby Meadows and will have a mixture of 95 one, two, three and four-bedroom properties.

In recent months, contractors have started preparing the land, laying roads, and building some of the houses.

The homes are being built on a field that is prone to flooding and the council said some of the homes are being built between 0.5m and 1.35m above existing ground level to help with drainage.  However, the increase in the ground elevation had not been approved at the planning stage.

Residents concerns

Granby Residents Association, which includes people living in properties adjacent to the development, complained to the council that the homes were being built too high and would “tower over” nearby homes.

Gary Walker, a member of the group, said:

“Residents along the site boundary with both Roseville Drive and Kingsley Drive expressed grave concerns once the work on the infrastructure commenced.

“You only have to visit the properties on Kingsley Drive to see how high the levels have been increased and how these new houses will tower over them.”

Work underway at the site.

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Mr Walker shared with the Stray Ferret email correspondence he had with the council’s planning enforcement officer Andrew Lancashire.

Mr Lancashire confirmed that work on 15 homes took place before the planning condition had been discharged.

He wrote:

“It would appear that the foundations for the units 80-94 have been laid and ground levels will be raised between 0.5m to 1.35m above the existing ground levels to the internal finished floor level (FFL) of the new dwellings.

“The engineering operation to increase the FFL were not approved at the planning stage and development has begun without these planning conditions first being discharged. This is a breach of planning.”

Action

Mr Lancashire said the council investigated the planning breach further to decide what action to take.

As the homes would be up to 1.35m taller, he measured what the distance was between them and Kingsley Drive.

He found all met the recommended distance except for two properties. 

Mr Lancashire said the difference was “relatively minor” and requested that trees be planted as mitigation.

He wrote that Redrow Homes have “recognised this shortfall and are in the process of submitting a revised and enhanced landscape buffer to deal with this situation”.

David Faraday, technical director for Redrow (Yorkshire), said:

“We are developing this site in accordance with the approved plans. Prior to the planning permission being granted we had supplied all relevant and requested information to the council regarding site levels.

“We are currently liaising with officers at the council regarding an issue identified with the site levels and we have committed to provide additional landscaping along the boundary. This will be maintained long-term, initially by our site team and on an ongoing basis by a management company for the site, once they have been appointed.

“Site drainage proposals remain consistent with the strategy agreed during the planning process and Yorkshire Water have confirmed their intention to adopt the scheme as proposed.”

Granby residents demand action on ‘banging and crashing’ from noisy pile driver

Residents near a housebuilding site in Harrogate have complained that a loud pile driver is ruining their day.

Developer Redrow Homes was given the green light to build 95 homes on Granby Farm by Harrogate Borough Council in April. The homes are currently being built in a field near Harrogate High School.

Pile drivers are machines that drive steel into the earth during the early stages of construction to create foundations.

One resident, Gary Walker, said the machine began on Monday and has been “constant” throughout this week. The field is surrounded by houses and he called on the council to take action.

Mr Walker said:

“I’ve never heard anything like it.

“I’ve closed all the windows as I couldn’t concentrate. It’s like living next to Big Ben. It’s constant and you can feel the vibrations shaking.

“This is a serious issue and the lack of consideration is very concerning.”

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Bill Shaw, who also lives nearby, worries that the noise and vibrations could scare dogs and cats and potentially affect people’s health.

He said:

“The noise is ridiculous. It’s a constant banging and crashing.”

The residents questioned whey there did not appear to be any measures in place to reduce the noise, such as sound barriers. They would like to see the pile driver stopped until the noise is addressed.

Tom Roberts, Redrow Homes said:

“Initial piling for our 95 new homes is due to be completed in the next few days, although there will be further piling required in the future which is an essential part of building our homes.  We appreciate that this type of work can be disruptive for neighbours and thank them for their patience. We can assure them that we will always do our best to complete it as quickly as possible.

“The development will be known as Granby Meadows and we are looking forward to bringing the first properties to market in February next year. The development will include 40% affordable housing, high quality green space, a new footpath and cycle greenway connecting to Harrogate town centre and The Stray, plus local education contributions in excess of £500,000.”

The Stray Ferret contacted Harrogate Borough Council for a response but we did not receive one by the time of publication.

Granby Farm 95 homes move closer as developer buys land

The construction of 95 homes on Granby Farm has moved a step closer after a housing developer bought the land.

Richborough Estates had worked with developer Redrow Homes to apply for planning permission from Harrogate Borough Council.

The council approved the plans in April 2021 despite complaints from residents that it would result in the loss of the last remaining link between the Stray and countryside.

It also faced complaints from residents of Redrow’s Devonshire Gardens who did not appreciate how the plans would see a street built over park Pickering Gardens.

Now it has permission, Redrow Homes has officially bought the 10.1 acre land from Richborough Estates.

The Stray Ferret asked both Redrow Homes and Richborough Estates how much the land was bought for but we received no reply by the time of writing.

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The plans for 95 homes will include a mixture of one, two, three and four-bedroom properties.

Workers have already started preparing the land for the development, which is to be known as Granby Meadows.

Jonathan Bloor, managing director of Richborough Estates’ Western Division, said:

“We’re delighted to have completed this sale to Redrow just months after they purchased our 18-acre residential site at nearby Kingsley Road.

“I’d like to congratulate our team for their huge commitment in bringing forward this former grazing paddock as a prime site for much-needed new homes.

“The project began in 2015 and has involved input from our planning, design and technical divisions as well as extensive stakeholder discussion and consultation.

“We’re now really looking forward to see construction getting underway and the new homes coming to life.”

John Handley, managing director of Redrow Yorkshire, said

“Redrow is delighted to have completed the purchase of this fantastic site in the heart of Harrogate, continuing our commitment to delivering high quality new homes in the town.

“We hope to have the first homes on sale off-plan early next year, closely followed by the first of the 146 homes planned for Kingsley Road.

Strayside Sunday: Computer says ‘No’ (if you are a badger…)

Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party. 

The comedian David Walliams’ brilliant early-2000s Little Britain series of sketches in which a gormless, obstructive female bank clerk, shop assistant or council worker parrots an automated rejection of a loan, credit or welfare application were so funny because they captured one of the great frustrations of modern life:  The outsourced, de-humanised, jobsworth enabled, machine-based decision making of our times;  the imposition of an electronic barrier between the customer and unseen service provider; the replacement of an accountable human face with programmed software and technology.

Scroll forward almost twenty years and our good friends at Harrogate Borough Council have, in this spirit, added to their ever-lengthening list of “you couldn’t make it up” bungling howlers.  This week, the Stray Ferret reported that Harrogate resident and keen birdwatcher Bill Shaw, was shocked to find that his objections to Richborough Homes planned 95-dwelling development at Granby Farm had been heavily redacted on the council’s planning portal.

Mr. Shaw’s objections were not a matter of national or local security and they did not expose the names and secret activities of individuals in the sensitive employ of the state.  Rather, Mr. Shaw had made the point that Granby Farm is rich in wildlife; with roosting owls, feeding kites, setting badgers and buzzing bees about to be evicted from their homes in favour of upright and two legged animals.

It turns out that Harrogate’s planning department is now so resource strapped that an algorithm (defined by the way by Google’s own algorithm as ‘a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer’) has replaced the planning officer who used to read planning objections and, using their experience and discretion, mark out anything that might identify, embarrass or compromise concerned individuals.  The ‘redaction algorithm’ (how sinister is that?) got the bit between its teeth and blacked out any reference to Mother Nature and her bounties.  And, in what must have been one of most egregious displays of misplaced irony I’ve seen – because I can’t possibly believe they could have been serious – the council put out a public statement in which it said that “our redaction algorithm has been overzealous.”  I wonder if the redaction algorithm has been hauled into Richard Cooper’s office for a dressing down, told to “cool it,” or perhaps is in receipt of a written warning?

This episode is both comic and troubling.  As well as making us laugh it shines a light on the creeping ethical and practical dangers of replacing human with artificial intelligence.  Beyond making sure that the any algorithms we use actually work well, and in this case it most certainly did not, we need to ask the first principles question; does the use case sufficiently protect the principles of transparency and accountability that are fundamental to our democratic system?

When the future of our environment and wildlife is at stake, when our need for housing stock is urgent and when we must surely make nuanced and well-informed choices that balance the benefits and risks of these two competing factors, I want skilled, informed and accountable people and processes to assess the plans before them in light of any objections made.

In example after example Harrogate Borough Council demonstrates a willingness to bend the rules and ignore the spirit of accountability and transparency.  Having sat on its hands for four months following the damage caused to the Stray by the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire it ignored normal procurement and competition rules on the grounds of an ‘emergency’ and awarded contractor Glendale Services a sole source contract worth around £40,000.  Thank goodness the Stray has been repaired because I’m sure it will see a huge increase in foot traffic as a result of the Council’s sole source award of a £165,000 contract to an Ipswich based company, the Jacob Bailey Group, to build a new ‘destination management system’ (website) for Visit Harrogate.  This decision justified on the basis that we now face an economic ‘emergency.’

It’s been revealed too that the council spent £57,630 on a judicial review defence in respect of the decision to press ahead with the housing development at Green Hammerton, instead of Flaxby Park.  Having initially refused to say how much of our money they spent on lawyers defending a planning decision they made in our name; and having received a Freedom of Information request for their troubles, the offending number was finally revealed in a tweet.  The initial refusal to share the lawyer’s fees was justified with the absurd claim that lawyer’s fees should remain private.  What cobblers.  We have every right to know what the council spends on professional services so that we can make an assessment about whether they (we) received value for money.

And here’s the rub.  The council is spending taxpayer money.  Millions of pounds of it.  It is our right to know that it has been spent well.  It is our right to know who made the decision to spend it and why.  It is our right to be able to judge the decisions and actions of those who presume to govern and administer.  It seems to me this council will hide behind any old excuse to act as they please and combine arrogance and incompetence in equal and generous measure.

“Computer says no.”

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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Do you have a view on this column or is there a political issue you’d like Paul to write about? Get in touch on paul@thestrayferret.co.uk

95 homes at Granby Farm will destroy ‘green corridor’

A residents group has told the Stray Ferret that 95 homes proposed for Granby Farm near Harrogate High School will destroy a vital “green corridor” that connects the Stray to the countryside.

Richborough Estates has submitted plans for 95 homes to be built on the land that is designated for development within Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan.

In a site assessment produced by HBC when formulating the Local Plan, the council said because the site “is an important part of the green infrastructure network” of Harrogate, any development on the site should maintain 50% open fields — yet plans submitted propose only 25% is kept green.

Gary Walker, from Granby Residents Association, said HBC should refuse the plans on this basis to “create a legacy” for the town.

He said:

“We believe a green corridor needs to be maintained. We don’t feel the current plans address that objective. There’s an opportunity for the council to create a legacy for the town by providing an access route for the Stray through to Nidd Gorge that could be enjoyed by the people of Harrogate.

 

“People are totally opposed to the proposals. We accept the field will be developed, however we are extremely disappointed the proposal on the table doesn’t meet the council’s recommendation for green space. The council could miss a big opportunity to create a green corridor and help the environment and wildlife.”

Richborough proposes 38 homes will be affordable and 57 will be sold at market rate. All the market rate properties would be either four or five-bedroom houses.

The public consultation for the plans will end on August 14.

The Stray Ferret asked Richborough to comment but it had not replied at the time of publication.

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There are several developments in the Kingsley area of Harrogate — which could see over 650 homes eventually built.

Richborough is also the developer for a separate application for 155 homes on Kingsley Road.

Last month it was told by HBC to “go away and rework” its proposals due to overdevelopment. Updated plans will go before HBC’s planning committee next week.