A six-week consultation on a neighbourhood plan which will guide development in Pannal and Burn Bridge is underway.

The consultation is the last chance for local people to have their say on how the area around the two villages will be shaped going forward.

The Pannal and Burn Bridge Neighbourhood Plan, which was drawn up by the local parish council shortly after it was created in 2016, is the first such document sent out for consultation by the new North Yorkshire Council.

If approved, it will be considered alongside in all future planning applications — although it can be overruled.

It has already been the subject of local surveys – but this new consultation is the last before it goes for independent examination.

Those surveys aimed to ensure the plan reflects aspirations and concerns and showed that green area conservation was a prime factor, along with the need to address traffic pollution and parking congestion around the school.

Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council chair Howard West said:

“We realise the villages need to grow, but we trust that any future development will be in keeping with the local area.

“We want to retain and cherish the rural character of our villages while still catering for our future employment and residential needs. Village protection is at the heart of this plan and we urge people to make sure they have had their say.”

Read more:

• 200-home Pannal Ash scheme ‘fails to address infrastructure’, say residents
• New book reveals storied history of Pannal and Burn Bridge

North Yorkshire Council’s Conservative executive member for open to business, Cllr Derek Bastiman (pictured above), said:

“Neighbourhood plans are an important part of the planning process, allowing communities to help shape their area and therefore guide future developments.

“North Yorkshire Council has to consult on the plan the parish council has submitted and we are calling on people to express their views before it goes for final examination.”

The consultation runs until Wednesday, May 31. The documents and comment forms are available here and representations can be submitted online.

Alternatively, the comment form can be downloaded and comments sent to PlanPolicy.har@northyorks.gov.uk or Planning Policy, North Yorkshire Council, PO Box 787, Harrogate HG1 9RW.

Updates and information on earlier stages of preparing the plan can be found here.

This story is sponsored by Kempston Parkes.

House prices may plummet elsewhere, but in Harrogate they’ll remain buoyant, the town’s foremost chartered surveyor has said. 

Andrew Kempston-Parkes was speaking as one of the biggest national lenders, Nationwide, revealed that UK house prices fell for the fifth consecutive month in January. He said: 

“I’ve seen four booms and crashes in my career, and what I know about Harrogate is that when that happens, we’re affected the least.

“Harrogate gets back to its highest values quicker than anywhere outside London. We’re very resilient. 

“There might be a contraction across England and Wales over the next 12 months, but it will be relatively shallow, at just 2 to 3%, and here there’ll be no contraction at all.” 

Nationwide also warned that “strong economic headwinds” made it unlikely that sales figures would improve soon, meaning it would be “hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term”. 

Mr Kempston-Parkes, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the property industry, said other market indicators told a different story:

“If they were concerned, they wouldn’t be offering 95% loan-to-value mortgages.” 

January’s Rightmove data, for example, showed a slight increase in house prices nationally, and lending institutions have done little to tighten availability of loans. 

Several factors weigh in Harrogate’s favour according to Mr Kempston-Parkes, including its proximity to Leeds and York, its high levels of employment, the clean environment, good schools, and even custom from the American base at Menwith Hill. He said:  

“Harrogate and its environs are still a destination place – people come to live in a spa town in a rural area. Communications are excellent – there are six trains a day to King’s Cross. 

“I had a client just yesterday from London who is moving up here to work from home three times a week and stay a couple of nights in London. There are still a lot of people wanting to live here. Half our clients are from outside the town. 

“My experience tells me that if there’s any correction here it’ll be mild and we’ll recover more quickly and better than anywhere else. The property market will remain strong.” 

Mr Kempston-Parkes earned his professional qualifications form the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in 1997, and founded Kempston-Parkes Chartered Surveyors in 2011. It now employs 14 people from its offices in central Harrogate. 

Find out more:

Kempston-Parkes Chartered Surveyors provide surveys and valuations for all purposes, including purchase, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, matrimonial assessments, boundary disputes and Land Registry plans. 

For more information, go to www.kempston-parkes.co.uk, or for a confidential conversation about your requirements, call 01423 789111.

Harrogate Borough Council‘s planning committee has approved a sixth housing development in the Kingsley area after a heated debate today.

The committee was split 6-6 on whether to accept 30 new homes at Kingsley Farm. It meant Rebecca Burnett, the chair of the committee, had the casting vote in favour.

It means more than 600 properties will be built in the Kingsley ward, where residents have already expressed exasperation at the scale of development and lack of supporting infrastructure.

Most of today’s debate centred on access to the site even though council case officer Kate Broadbank said the meeting should focus on the general principle of development. Access, she said, would be debated at the later reserved matters application for ironing out the details.

Ms Broadbank said there would be access roads to the development from Kingsley Road and Hawthorn Place. Creating the access road on Kingsley Road would, she said, require the removal of a stone wall and a ‘small number of trees’, which she said would be replaced.

Cllr Chris Aldred speaking today

Cllr Chris Aldred, a Liberal Democrat who represents the area on North Yorkshire County Council, said the new access road on Kingsley Road would go through an orchard and mean there would be five junctions in the space of 150 yards.

He called for the decision to be deferred, adding:

“There’s no planning necessity for this site now. We have enough houses in Harrogate already. We can work on this slowly but surely.”

A local resident, Matt Hodgson, told the committee “access remains crucial at this stage when discussing the suitability of the site”.

‘We have listened’

Speaking on behalf of the applicant Quarters Kingsley Ltd, David Williams said it was a small local developer working alongside the landowner, who has owned the site for 100 years.

Mr Williams said it was a former chicken farm that had become an “overgrown wasteland” that had “no purpose”

David Williams speaking at the meeting

He said the applicants had already agreed to reduce the number of home from 49 to 30, adding:

“We have listened. We are doing everything we can to make a positive contribution to the area.”

Doctors and dentists

Pat Marsh, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Harrogate Hookstone asked if there would be any increased provision for doctors and dentists in the area.

Ms Broadbank said ‘there will be a contribution’ through the section 106 agreement which developers sign to pay for infrastructure associated with their schemes but where it was allocated would be a matter for the NHS.

Read more:

• Council recommends controversial Kingsley Farm homes be approved
• Kingsley residents call for halt to new housing decisions

All six councillors in favour of the scheme were Conservatives. Three Liberal Democrats, two Conservatives and one Independent opposed the recommendation to approve the principle of development on the land.

After the scheme was approved, Cllr Burnett berated Cllr Marsh for saying ‘shameful’.

“Can we have less bickering from the committee? I don’t think we need to hear ‘shameful’ shouted out when we have taken a democratic vote from all members of the committee.

“When things don’t go your way I don’t feel it’s acceptable for you to do that.”

There are fears up to three million litres of water went to waste in Ripon yesterday, after a Yorkshire Water mains pipe burst on North Street.

The pipe burst at around 5am and meant around 4,000 homes in Ripon and the surrounding area woke up to no water.

It wasn’t fully restored until 7pm later in the day, with the company setting up two emergency bottled water stations at Ripon fire station and Ripon Racecourse for residents.

Emergency bottled water stations were set up in the city.

The Bishop of Ripon was among those criticising Yorkshire Water’s response to customers, saying its lack of communication was “unacceptable”.

https://twitter.com/HartleyHAM/status/1560284278331678720

A source at the scene told the Stray Ferret that engineers working on the leak said 70 litres of water were lost every second before it was fixed.

In a 12-hour period, this would have meant over three million litres could have been lost in total.

We put this figure to Yorkshire Water. A spokesperson said the figure was “inaccurate” but was unable to say how much water had been lost.

They said as soon as the leak was located engineers managed to stem the flow.

However, according to the company’s Twitter account, the leak wasn’t identified until 12pm, seven hours after it was first reported.

This suggests between 1.5 million and 2 million litres of water could have been lost.

Engineers on the scene Pic: Paul Smith

Read more:

• Ripon residents collect thousands of bottles of water as taps run dry

• Water returns to some properties in Ripon

The burst main has come at a bad time for Yorkshire Water. The Harrogate district is now officially in drought and a hosepipe ban will come into force from August 26.

We asked Yorkshire Water what caused the leak and a spokesperson sent the following statement:

“Our pipework has been under a lot of pressure recently – with high peaks of water usage and the dry ground causing soil to contract, which causes pipes to fracture more easily. We’ve increased resource in our field teams over the last few weeks, so that we can catch more small leaks before they turn into bursts and fix the big bursts as soon as possible.

“It took a little bit longer than usual to locate the burst pipe and complete the fix yesterday, as it was underground and tricky to locate. We delivered bottled water to customers on our priority services register and updated our customers via the website, social media and text, as to where they could collect bottled water.

“We’re grateful to our customers for their patience whilst we fixed the issue – those eligible for compensation in relation to the water supply interruption will receive it automatically.”

Ripon Grammar School‘s boarding school has been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

A report published on Saturday said children “enjoy boarding at this school”, safeguarding arrangements are “effective” and “the school is very well supported by a skilled, experienced governing body”.

Government inspectors rated the boarding provision ‘good’ in all areas assessed. It was rated ‘outstanding’ at its previous Ofsted inspection in 2017.

Ripon Grammar has 929 boys and girls aged 11 to 18 years, of which 94 are boarders. Yearly fees for years seven to 11 are £11,719.

Accommodation is provided in two houses: School House for boys and Johnson House for girls.

School House

The latest Ofsted visit took place from February 8 to 18 this year.

The report said:

“Children enjoy boarding at this school. They make new friends and enjoy socialising with children of all ages. Older children help the younger children, or those new to boarding, to feel at home.

“Children feel they are fortunate to board at this school. They believe that the experience helps
their overall development.

“Children are helped to settle as boarders. There is a well-established routine of visits
to the school before children begin boarding.”

Headteacher Jonathan Webb

Boarders told inspectors their boarding houses were like ‘big families’. The report said:

“Everyone has someone they can talk to, which means that children feel reassured
about being away from family members.”

Areas to improve

Ofsted recommended improvements in three areas. It described the arrangements for auditing medication as “mixed”, adding:

“This reduces the effectiveness of the oversight of medication that is stored in the boarding houses. The head of boarding accepts this shortfall and plans to improve these processes.”

Read more:

• Ripon Grammar BMX rider earns place in world championships
• Art gallery will be retained in plans to redevelop Ripon building

Inspectors also said that although most areas are well maintained “the physical condition of the boarding houses varies” and that “some bathrooms need improving and one of the houses lacks homely touches” .

“Given that some children stay in the boarding houses for long periods, this is detrimental to their experiences.”

Ofsted also said there was a potential risk to children, recognised by leaders, due to the siting of the artificial playing field and their were plans “to improve screening to enhance the protection afforded to children”.

Headteacher ‘extremely pleased’

Mr Webb said:

“Overall we are extremely pleased with the outcome of this report given the increased rigour, now evident from Ofsted, which is being applied to the inspection framework.

“Since our last inspection in 2017, boarding at RGS has most definitely moved on with some essential, possibly less eye-catching, initiatives such as the considerable amount of investment we have made to site and fire security in both houses, extensive upgrades to staff accommodation to ensure we recruit and retain highly qualified and committed staff, and improvements in some of the social spaces such as communal kitchens and common rooms.

“Last year we also added a further 10 new bedrooms in School House to accommodate boarders. In addition, a huge amount of work has been done to standardise routines across both houses and promote boarders’ independence.”