Government rejects plans to build 170 homes in Knaresborough

The government has rejected plans to build 170 homes in Knaresborough.

Landowner Geoffrey Holland’s application would have seen homes built on Water Lane in the town.

The decision is the latest refusal for the developer, who has twice sought permission to build on the site.

Harrogate Borough Council rejected the latest proposal in August 2021 after planning officers said the scheme had a number of “fundamental” issues.

However, the developer took the council to appeal over its decision and said there were no “significant impacts” that would be caused by the development.

‘Unsatisfactory scheme’

Kate Broadbank, the council’s planning officer, told a planning committee meeting in August 2021 that the scheme had a number of issues to resolve.

She said:

“One of the site allocation requirements is the provision of a circular recreation route – and this has been provided around the edge of the site.

“However, it is considered to be unsatisfactory, as it is a narrow path between the site boundary and side elevations of dwellings, meaning it is not very well overlooked and would not provide a safe, attractive route.

“The same situation occurred around the open space and children’s play area where houses backed onto this.

“The applicant has tried to overcome this by turning some houses around to face onto the path and play area, however, this has led to an issue with rear gardens now backing onto the streets.

“On the whole, the scheme is considered to lack character or a sense of place.”

Cunnane Town Planning, which lodged the appeal on behalf of Mr Holland, said there were “no significant or demonstrable adverse impacts that would arise as a consequence of the development”.

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However, Chris Baxter, planning inspector, dismissed the developer’s appeal on the grounds that the plan was outside the development boundary and would still have “significant harm” on surrounding areas.

Mr Baxter acknowledged that the scheme had “adequate affordable housing” and would not have an impact on highways safety, but added that it still had issues.

He said in a decision notice published this week:

“The proposal would not have a detrimental effect on highway safety and adequate affordable housing would be provided within the scheme. 

“However, these matters and the benefits described above would not outweigh the significant harm I have identified with regards to the effect on the surrounding area and future users.”

Harrogate district house prices fall £6,000 on last month

Average house prices in the Harrogate district fell by £6,000 in a month, according to latest government figures.

Data released by the Land Registry shows that from April to May the average price of a property dropped from £332,641 to £326,123.

However, the figures also reveal that prices have increased year on year.

Since May 2021, the average cost of a property has increased by 7.4%. Buyers could purchase a house for £303,528 last year.

By comparison, a property in Leeds could be bought for £229,139 in May this year.

The number is also a drop on last month by £604.

Average house price increased by 13%

The average cost of a home in the Harrogate district is slightly above that for the country.

Across England, latest figures show that the average price is £303,278.

This is up 13.1% on May last year.

In a statement, the Land Registry said:

“England house prices grew by 13.1% in the year to May 2022, up from 11.6% in April 2022. England house prices were growing faster than the UK annual rate of 12.8% in the year to May 2022.

“The South West was the fastest growing region with annual growth of 16.9% in the year to May 2022. The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices increased by 8.2% over the year to May 2022.”

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Plans approved to convert 53 Bo Grove into two flats

Plans have been approved to convert part of the former 53 Bo Grove antiques boutique and cafe into two flats.

The bohemian business on Grove Road in Harrogate closed in December 2021 after more than two years of business.

It became a hub for residents during the early coronavirus lockdowns by remaining open to sell food at a time when many supermarkets were struggling for stock.

Now, a plan to convert part of the building into two flats has been given the go-ahead.

The proposal has been lodged by Architecture One Eight Ltd on behalf of David Birtles.

A planning statement tabled to Harrogate Borough Council from the developers said the proposal would help to bring the building back into use.

It said:

“The existing buildings have fallen into disrepair and are having a negative impact on the adjacent conservation area.”

A separate proposal to convert another part of the building into three flats was refused over concerns that the scheme “would not provide adequate natural light” into rooms in the flats.

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Oxfordshire company given £200,000 contract to review Harrogate junctions

An Oxfordshire company has been awarded £200,000 to oversee a review of junctions as part of mass house building in the west of Harrogate.

North Yorkshire County Council has appointed RPS Consulting Services Limited to oversee the work, which is part of the West Harrogate Infrastructure Delivery Strategy.

The strategy is part of the wider proposals for the area and builds upon the West Harrogate Parameters Plan, which sets out how the area’s infrastructure and services will cope with 4,000 new homes.

The contract will see RPS Consulting Services review the designs of the junctions within the strategy.

Karl Battersby, corporate director for business and environmental services at the county council, said:

“This is a contract to support us in reviewing proposed junction mitigations for the infrastructure delivery plan, which is required to support growth in the west of Harrogate.

“The work will look at the design and timing of various junction changes, as well as the cost and delivery mechanism.

“It includes a number of junctions which will be looked at as part of a cumulative transport assessment carried out by the developers.”

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Residents have criticised the delivery strategy for lacking detail and being “incoherent”.

Some people said they were disappointed after a meeting last month over some of the proposals in the delivery strategy.

The document was due for completion in May – but Harrogate Borough Council has now said it expects it to be published before the end of the year.

The Western Arc Coordination Group, which represents a range of Harrogate campaign and residents groups, said in a statement after the meeting:

“On the day, we were asked to provide comments on a document that only consisted of a series of diagrams in relation to a number of road junctions without any supporting data. The whole of this work came over as incoherent and lacking any real structure.”

In response, a borough council spokesperson said the meeting was held to help design the strategy and further consultation will take place with residents groups later in the year.

Developer withdraws Harrogate office block flats plan

Developers have withdrawn plans to convert Simpson House in Harrogate into flats.

Artium Group had submitted the proposal to Harrogate Borough Council to convert some of the offices off Clarence Drive.

It would have seen seven flats created at the vacant office block.

The developer had also planned to use the current 14 car parking spaces and create storage for seven bicycles.

However, the proposal has now been withdrawn.

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It comes as a council officer raised concern over the viability of the plan.

Alan Gilleard, the borough council’s arboricultural manager, raised concern that the change of use of the building would impact on neighbouring trees which are protected by a tree preservation order.

In response to the application, he said:

“Change of use to residential is highly problematic in arboricultural terms. I cannot recall the LPA supporting a residential application that includes allowing development into the canopy spread of large, maturing trees. 

“Planning by definition includes forecasting, predicting and foreseeing future conflicts and removing/reducing.

“Where this cannot be achieved can clash with the planning balance such that if the application were approved the challenges for the future outlined accordingly.”

Harrogate Civic Society said in a letter that it agreed with the council officer’s comments.

‘Let’s make the best of it’: Hopes and fears for 3000-home Maltkiln settlement

Heated public meetings, protests outside council offices and legal challenges in the high court couldn’t stop Harrogate Borough Council from deciding that 3,000 homes should be built around the villages of Cattal, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.

The decision was mired with suspicion and ill feeling but now residents are trying to look ahead to how the project can work for them and the people who will eventually live there.

The cold-sounding “new settlement” has been given the more homely title of Maltkiln and a draft document has been published that outlines how the the 3,000 homes along with roads, schools, shops and public spaces will develop over the next few decades.

‘Inevitable’

Since 2016 the name Green Hammerton became synonymous with the new settlement, usually in debates that pitted the merits of developing land there versus Flaxby, which is closer to Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The council’s preferred option for the settlement is now centred around Cattal railway station, on the other side of A59 from Green Hammerton.

Chris Hay and James Veitch are shareholders of Green Hammerton’s Post Office, which also serves as a shop, newsagent and soon-to-be cafe.

The two have a grudging acceptance that the homes will be built but are concerned that Maltkiln will erode the village’s identity, which stretches back to Domesday times.

Green Hammerton

They have already seen Green Hammerton, population 675, swell with three new build housing schemes in recent years.

Mr Veitch said:

“The word inevitable comes to mind but you have to be grown up and make the best of it”.

Not a village

A development plan document (DPD) drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council includes a vision for what Maltkiln will eventually become, which is a “garden village with a distinctive identity where people want to live, work and spend time”.

It conjures up a pastoral scene but with an eventual population larger than Boroughbridge, calling Maltkiln a village is misleading to some.

Mr Veitch said:

“They call it a village don’t they? How on earth can you call a 3,000 development a village? It’s a town, not an insignificant one at that. It will be big enough to create traffic jams on the A59”.

3,000 new homes is likely to result in at least 6,000 cars. Mr Veitch fears that much more investment in Cattal Station is required if commuters are going to leave their cars at home.

Cattal Station

He added:

“There will be a lot of commuting, that’s the bottom line. The A59 will be busy and the railway will not increase its capacity much more than what it is. I don’t buy the argument that it’s a hub where you can transport 10,000 people to anywhere.

“People will still use their cars, anyone who suggests otherwise is naive.”

Fresh blood

Keith Welton and his wife Val have lived in Cattal for 16 years, close to the railway station that the developer Oakgate Group hopes will be one of the unique selling points of Maltkiln.

With homes set to be built in green fields that currently surround the family home, Mr Welton might be forgiven for feeling negative or even bitter about the development.

However, he’s taking a pragmatic approach and sees several benefits that it could bring to the area and the people who live in the villages.

Serious infrastructure investment is promised in the DPD, including improvements to the dangerous Whixley crossing on the A59. Cattal Station already saw £10m of investment in 2020 to increase the number of trains to Harrogate and York.

Kirk Hammerton will also be impacted by Maltkiln

Mr Welton has seen his children and their friends priced out from living locally and he hopes affordable housing can inject some younger blood into the area.

He also hopes the new North Yorkshire Council will be firm with the developers and ensure that affordable housing genuinely is affordable.

Mr Welton said:

“There’s an acute need for affordable housing. Many of our young people come out of university and want to go to Leeds, Manchester or London. They settle down, and they want to come back. We need to capitalise on that talent and make housing available for them.”

“I’m 74 and you can’t have a village full of 74 year olds!”

‘Make the best fist of it’

A criticism of HBC for choosing Green Hammerton over Flaxby was a perception that its residents will be heading in one direction towards York for work and leisure.

But Mr Welton said the majority of his family’s trips are to Harrogate to visit restaurants or the theatre.

He believes Flaxby is “one of the most desirable commercial sites in the whole of North Yorkshire” and that homes built next to a noisy motorway would have made it a poor choice for housing.

He added:

“I do think the location for Maltkiln makes sense. It’s now up to people to make the best fist of it. It’s easy to be negative. We should turn those energies around to get the sort of development that will be an exemplar and people think, wow”.

Climate emergency

The DPD for Maltkiln is 88 pages long and the words ‘climate change’ are mentioned on 36 of them.

It’s clear that HBC hopes the settlement will differ from every other large housing scheme in the district it has approved in recent years that have done little to tackle the climate emergency or help the council reach its emission reduction goals.

The government is set to ban gas boilers in new build homes from 2025. It means the homes in Maltkiln should be powered by renewable energy sources such as heat pumps or solar panels.

The document also claims the development will offer a “biodiversity net gain”, which is a planning phrase that means it will leave the environment in a better state than it was before the homes were built.

But when Maltkiln will involve concreting over vast swathes of green fields, it’s an ambition that could appear impossible.

Land in Cattal earmarked for development

Arnold Warneken, Green Party councillor for Ouseburn on North Yorkshire County Council, said he hopes the developer can be influenced to ensure go further than government regulations around the environment.

He said:

“It’s really, really important we don’t get into lip service and tokenism around biodiversity but it’s going to happen so let’s make sure it happens for best of our community, not just stand back and say I don’t agree with it.”

He added:

“The solution is not to concrete over it, but then the scenario is where do you build the houses? Some people say brownfield but people underestimate the biodiversity of brownfield sites, nature gets everywhere”.

Council’s legacy

Harrogate Borough Council will cease to exist in less than a year’s time but arguably the biggest decision it made during its existence was deciding to change the face of Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton and Cattal forever with the new settlement.

How successful Maltkiln will turn out could be HBC’s ultimate legacy.

Spofforth housing developer requests £23,000 in council appeal costs

A developer has asked Harrogate Borough Council to pay £23,000 in costs after it won a planning appeal against the authority.

Yorkshire Housing Ltd took the council to the government’s Planning Inspectorate after it refused a proposal for 72 homes on Massey Fold in Spofforth.

The developer already had outline permission to build on the site, but councillors turned down an application that finalised the appearance and landscaping details in November 2020.

At the time, councillors said the plan would have a “detrimental urbanising impact upon the character and setting of Spofforth”.

A planning inspector sided in favour with Yorkshire Housing and gave the go-ahead for the scheme in October 2021.

Now the council has confirmed that the developer has submitted a request for costs totalling £23,278 for the appeal.

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The developer sought costs from the council after it said the authority had “unreasonably delayed” the housing development.

Council officials asked the inspector dismiss the request. But the government awarded costs against the authority.

Local concern

The decision to approve the scheme followed concerns from local residents over the design and that the housing would not be in keeping with the village.

More than 300 local people and organisations, including Natural England and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, raised concerns about the development.

Shirley Fawcett, chairman of Spofforth with Stockeld Parish Council, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson appealing for help in challenging the development.

However, Siobhan Watson, the government planning inspector, said she found the council’s reasons for refusal “vague and illogical”.

She said:

“Given the site’s planning history, I find the council’s refusal of the application and subsequent defence of the case to be both vague and illogical. 

“I consider that the development should have been clearly permitted and that the council produced vague and generalised assertions about the proposal’s impact which are unsupported by objective analysis.”

Plan to convert former Markington pub into house

Plans have been lodged to convert a former Markington pub into a house.

The Cross Keys Inn, High Street, closed in 2016 after declining turnover and profitability.

Now, plans have been tabled to Harrogate Borough Council to convert the pub into a home.

ID Planning, who have lodged the plan on behalf of Leeds-based Lotherton Property Services, said in documents submitted to the council that the building had been extensively marketed.

It added that potential buyers had little interest in reopening the pub.

The documents said:

“No party expressed any interest whatsoever in reopening it as a public house or indeed any other use other than residential.”

The proposal would see the former pub converted into a four bedroom house along with three car parking spaces.

Harrogate Borough Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

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Two primary schools planned for new 3,000-home Harrogate district settlement

Two primary schools and land for a secondary school form part of proposals for a new 3,000-home village between Harrogate and York.

The settlement, to be named Maltkiln, will be built in the Hammerton and Cattal area. New details of the major scheme have been revealed this week.

A development plan document from Harrogate Borough Council shows there are proposals for two 420-place primary schools – one of which would be able to expand with room for 630 pupils.

The plan also said because the village is not large enough to “generate sufficient pupils” for a secondary school, around £10.5 million would be provided to fund an expansion of 11 new classrooms at Boroughbridge High School.

However, it added that land within Maltkiln has been designated for “future secondary provision should this be required in the future”.

The plan said: 

“The council has been working with the education authority, North Yorkshire County Council, in order to identify the educational infrastructure required to support the level of growth proposed in Maltkiln.

“NYCC have indicated that the development is not projected to generate sufficient numbers of pupils to warrant the need for a secondary school on-site.

“Nevertheless, for the proper and long-term planning of the area, the council consider a cautious approach should be taken and have safeguarded land for a secondary school if it is needed.”

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It is estimated that more than 8,000 residents will occupy the village, which may not be completed until at least 2038.

A six-week consultation on the development plan document is planned for October, when residents will be asked to share their views on areas including roads and public transport.

After this, the document will then be submitted to the government for public examination.

Maltkiln is centred around Cattal train station which links York, Harrogate and Leeds – and Harrogate Borough Council hopes this location will “steer development away” from residents living in surrounding villages who have objected to the proposals.

The council also said facilities including shops, employment space and a GP surgery should be built around this central location.

It said: 

“A new community of over 8,000 residents will generate a need for significant new local facilities and these should be located at the heart of the settlement directly adjacent to Cattal railway station.

“The mixed-use local centre will provide a diverse and vibrant space at the heart of Maltkiln.”

A meeting of the council’s cabinet will be held next Wednesday when senior councillors will be asked to agree to the launch of the consultation on the development plan document.

A report to the meeting said the publication of the plan is a “key milestone” and that once approved it will provide “a 30 year vision for Maltkiln”.

The report added: 

“The development plan document provides the starting point to guide the development and delivery of Maltkiln.

“Proposals will need to go through the planning application process and there will be further opportunities for communities and stakeholders to be involved in more detailed master-planning.

“The council is also exploring a range of governance and stewardship options to ensure that residents will have a say in how community facilities are run.”

Final approval for 133 Harrogate homes

Plans for 133 homes in one of Harrogate’s fastest growing areas have been granted final approval after concerns shifted from the discovery of badgers to road safety.

Harrogate Borough Council initially rejected the Kingsley Road plans in 2019, but the authority was forced to reconsider the proposals after its decision was overturned at appeal.

Final plans were then submitted by the developers Redrow, however, local residents brought the development to a halt after using night vision cameras to discover six out of 11 badger setts in the area were active.

A wildlife consultant for Redrow told a council meeting today that after further badger surveys and through mitigation measures there would be “no damage or danger” to the protected mammals.

And while this allayed the concerns of councillors, their attention soon shifted to the safety of pedestrians on Kingsley Road on Bogs Lane.

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A new footpath connecting the two roads has been promised by the developers of another housing site in the Kinglsey area which overall is facing the construction of around 600 new homes.

However, detailed plans for the footpath have yet to come forward.

Cllr Hannah Gostlow said road safety was a “huge concern” and that having seen a mother and two children try to navigate the road earlier today, the “risk to life” was clear.

She suggested a temporary footpath be built within the Redrow site – and the developers agreed to submit proposals for this should the other footpath on the opposite side of Kingsley Road not be built before the new homes are.

Cllr Pat Marsh described the road as “very dangerous” and said a solution for pedestrians had to be treated as a priority.

She said: 

“The footpath opposite has still not been delivered and that is going to be very difficult, whereas the developers here have got an opportunity to do something within their own site.

“No one is asking for a fancy footpath, but one that means people can come off that road safely.”

Also at today’s meeting, John Hansard, a member of the Kingsley Ward Action Group, made repeated complaints about the disruptions that residents have faced from construction sites in the area as he also called on the council to step up enforcement action on developers.

He said: 

“We have had nearly five years of constant construction from developers intent on avoiding any safety measures for residents and when we complain to enforcement they do nothing.

“Trucks continue to leave the sites with uncovered loads, depositing waste all over Kingsley Road.

“We have also had three developments all of which were supposed to have wheel washing machines in situ, yet none have.”

Mr Hansard received sympathy from Cllr Marsh who agreed that the Kinglsey area has “suffered far too much”.

She said: 

“Hopefully this is the end of these developments here.”