Residents in Harlow Hill and Pannal Ash have been told to expect 15 more years of disruption due to a wave of new housing developments in the area.

Concerns about traffic and disruption linked to around 4,000 new homes dominated Harlow & Pannal Ash Residents’ Association’s (Hapara) annual general meeting this week.

Much of the discussion was centered around the 770-home Windmill Farm development after plans were submitted by Anwyl Land and national housebuilder Redrow Homes this month.

The homes and a new primary school would be built on green fields on the opposite side of the road from the charity-run nursery Horticap and behind RHS Harlow Carr.

David Siddans, Hapara’s secretary, told the room that a traffic report submitted by the developers had “seriously underestimated” the number of cars that are likely to leave the site during rush hour.

The report suggested that 450 vehicles will leave in the morning.

Mr Siddans warned the current road network around Otley Road will struggle to cope with Windmill Farm traffic as well as cars from large housing schemes at Bluecoat Wood, Whinney Lane and Pennypot Lane.

He said:

“They have seriously underestimated the total impact on the highways network. Pennypot Lane and all the other sites will feed traffic towards this direction. The totality of it will be huge.”

Sustainable transport

The Windmill Farm site includes a cycle path towards Harrogate and three bus stops. However, Mr Siddans said the plans don’t do enough to encourage residents to leave their cars at home.

“How many people can you persuade not to use a car? That isn’t explained. We know they are providing a bus route, they’ll provide some bus stops, but what about the bus? Who’s providing that?

“How many will cycle or use public transport? We simply don’t know the impact.”

At the meeting, Otley Road resident Chris Dicken also did a critical presentation on the Otley Road Cycle Path, which he called “a waste of money”.

David Rowe from Zero Carbon Harrogate gave a talk on the benefits of low traffic neighbourhoods, which is when a road is closed to through traffic to boost walking and cycling, as as the one currently on Beech Grove.

Windmill Farm proposals

Mr Rowe and the group’s chair, Jemima Parker, fielded questions from residents about the environmental impact of Windmill Farm.

The homes will be built with gas boilers, despite the government banning them from new builds from 2025.

Ms Parker queried the layout of the Windmill Farm and suggested it had been designed with the car in mind.

“The shop and the school are not next to each other, so when you go to pick your children up from school you can’t pop into the shop. It’s illogical and needs a different way of thinking.”

Parameters plan

Rene Dziabas

Rene Dziabas, chair of Hapara, expressed the group’s dismay at the delayed West of Harrogate Parameters Plan, a document the group had hoped would go some way to solving transport issues.

Mr Dziabas said the plan had been developed without much input from residents who have knowledge of the area.

He said:

“The only way we’ll make progreess is if the council genuinely starts interacting with the community, not gaming us and ticking boxes, but actually listening to us.”

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesman said previously:

“A number of suggestions have already helped shaped the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan and I’d like to thank those local resident groups and parish councils for their valuable feedback.”

Developers have lodged plans to build 49 homes on Kingsley Farm in Harrogate.

Quarterly Kingsley Ltd has submitted the plan for the north and north east of the site off Kingsley Road.

It comes as the area has seen multiple planning applications lodged to build houses on Kingsley Farm, including a proposal for 181 homes by Persimmon Homes.

The latest proposal would include 20 homes allocated as affordable housing.

The developer said in a planning statement submitted to Harrogate Borough Council that the scheme would help to offer a “sense of place”.

It said:

“Kingsley Farm brings together complex ideas of identity, community, ownership sensibilities, public spaces and landscape into a singular harmonious place for the residents and neighbours, creating a sense of place and identity.”

Read more:

• Plea for ‘moratorium’ on controversial 181-home Kingsley development
• Residents say new Granby Farm homes will ‘tower over’ them

The borough council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.

The latest proposal comes as residents in Kingsley have voiced their objection to more housing developments in the area.

In February, 100 residents packed into St Andrew’s Church in Starbeck for a meeting on a scheme to build 181 homes off Kingsley Road.

Three Persimmon employees attended, as did two highways consultants and a planning consultant, Paul Butler, who spoke on behalf of the developer.

Mr Butler told residents that the site is allocated for development in the Harrogate district Local Plan, a council document that outlines where new housing schemes can be built until 2034.

However, John Hansard, from Kingsley Ward Action Group, said residents “will fight tooth and nail” to stop it from happening.

He said:

“People lived here for decades and have had this beautiful view, how do you think they will feel [when it’s gone]?”

The booming housing market in the Harrogate district led to a record number of homes sold above £1million last year.

Land Registry data reveals 84 property deals passed the seven-figure threshold, more than any other previous year.

The number includes all detached and semi-detached homes as well as apartments.

The most expensive part of Harrogate is an area off Leeds Road —Fulwith Mill Lane, Fulwith Grove, Fulwith Drive and Fulwith Road — where five homes sold for over a million in 2021.

The Harrogate district beats large metropolitan areas in the North (Leeds, 55, York, 27, Manchester, 17) when it comes to bumper property deals.

Knaresborough

The two most expensive homes sold last year in the district were in Knaresborough.

Staveley Court in the village of Staveley sold for £3m and a property on Lands Lane went for £2.9m.

Staveley Court. The most expensive property in the Harrogate district last year

In a sign of just how buoyant the property market is currently, the website Move Market suggests Staveley Court’s value has increased by a whopping £449,000 since it was sold in January 2021.

Its price tag has trebled in two decades. It was sold in 2001 in a deal worth £950,000.

Peter Lacey is from Knaresborough Community Land Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that is hoping to develop a site in the town into affordable housing.

He said the record year for million pound houses indicates the market is currently imbalanced:

“The pace in which affordable housing is growing is being outstripped by the rate we are selling million pound houses.

“It’s a product of supply and demand, but an awful lot of people, including my own kids, can’t get on the property ladder.

“We haven’t got the balance right but you can’t criticise anyone for buying or selling house at market value.”

Mr Lacey said he is worried that expensive property deals will inflate the market and make it even more unaffordable for people earning average wages to buy a home here.

He added:

“That’s what id be concerned about. If market is distorted, that becomes an issue.”

Booming market

David Waddington, director at Linley & Simpson, described the current housing market in the district as a “frenzy”.

He said the average value of a property in Harrogate is going up by 1% a month.

He added:

“There has been really strong activity over the last three years. Selling homes for over a million is not uncommon nowadays.”

“Increasingly, buyers are wanting houses with all the bells and whistles, but to be able to afford a million, Harrogate is the jewel in the crown.”

Last week The Sunday Times named Harrogate as one of the best places to live in the UK.

Judges cited the town’s schools, parks, shops, cafes and restaurants as among its attractions, describing it as “all the fun and fresh air of Yorkshire without any of the gritty bits”.

Mr Waddington said around 25% of Linley & Simpson’s sales are from people moving up to the district from down south, which he said could be pushing prices up.

He expects a downturn in the market later this year but for those who can afford a £1m price tag, he said they are less likely to be affected by factors like the cost of living crisis and inflation.

Villagers in Bishop Monkton say climate change has led to increased flooding in their village over the past decade — and two housing developments, with a total of 125 new homes, will exacerbate the problem.

Bishop Monkton Action Group was formed two years ago to raise awareness in the village about a 98-home development on Moor Road by Alfa Homes and 25-homes by Kebbell Developments on Knaresborough Road.

The group’s members are residents Kenneth Barker, Jonathan Beer, Harvey Bigg, Martin Minett, Raj Selvarajan and Bob Upton.

Both sites in the village, which is five miles south of Ripon, were allocated for development in Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan, which means they are likely to be approved in some form.

But the action group is holding out hope that they will be dismissed outright because surface water at the two sites will run off into Bishop Monkton Beck, a small river that runs through the village.

Major implications

The group says freak flood events are becoming more common in the village.

One resident submitted an objection to both developments that said from 2011 to 2020 the village faced nine days of floods, which was the same as the previous 50 years combined.

A spokesperson for the action group said

“The wider cumulative impacts of these developments will have major implications to the village in our view.”

The Alfa Homes proposal

Read more:

• Plan to build new classroom at Bishop Monkton school
• Plan to expand Bishop Monkton caravan site

Flood risk assessment

A flood risk assessment submitted on behalf of Alfa Homes says surface water from the development will be discharged into Bishop Monkton Beck, which the Environment Agency classes as a river.

The developer said it has factored in a 30% increase in rainfall due to climate change but the risk of flooding would remain low.

A flood assessment submitted on behalf of the smaller Kebbel Developments scheme said surface water run-off into the river “will not increase flood risk elsewhere.”

That scheme will store water in a tank before it is discharged into the river.

However, members of the action group fear the two schemes, as well as a plan to increase the number of caravans on a local holiday site, could make flood events like those seen in 2015 and 2020 worse.

The two applications have almost 300 objections between them, with many people citing fears about flooding in the village.

North Yorkshire County Council, which is the flood authority, said HBC should refuse the application on flood grounds. It said:

“[The development] will ultimately increase the risk of flooding and exacerbate an already flood prone area; potentially further jeopardising people, property and critical infrastructure.”

Mike Mulligan, director at Kebbell Developments, sent the following response:

“The site is allocated for residential development in the adopted Harrogate Local Plan and therefore the principle of development has already been established. The comments and concerns of local residents on surface water flooding are noted and our engineers are liaising with the relevant bodies on the detailed design of the on-site attenuation and drainage scheme.

“We can confirm that the surface water drainage scheme for the development will meet all the necessary requirements. The key principle of the scheme is to ensure that the surface water is attenuated on the site in a large storage tank before being slowly discharged into the Beck at an agreed discharge rate.”

Afla Homes did not send a response at the time of publication

Flaxby-based modular housing developer Ilke Homes could manufacture 332 homes for a new housing scheme in Guernsey.

They would be built at Ilke’s factory and transported to Guernsey to be constructed on-site.

The Channel Islands Co-operative submitted plans for the development this week and include a car park and supermarket.

Jane Slimming, founder of Culco, an organisation which helps businesses implement cultural programmes, will be the key speaker at the meeting. She is also CEO of Zeal, a Digital and Creative Agency.

Ms. Slimming is expected to speak about subjects around improving workplace culture and inclusion, the future of the workplace, and recruitment.

Jane Slimming

Harrogate Borough Council has worked closely with the company, helping businesses across Yorkshire. It also funded workshop participation hosted by Culco earlier this year.

Harrogate BID will also hear about plans for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in Harrogate.

Read more:

• Pret A Manger set to open in Harrogate ‘very soon’
• Daleside Garage in Pateley Bridge to relocate this year

Residents in Sharow are continuing their fight to keep a former pub in the village for community use.

The Half Moon Inn pub on Sharow Lane was opened in 1822 but closed down back in 2016.

Since then, a long running saga has unfolded over how best to put the building to use.

A working group on the local parish council was set up to look into the viability of the pub for community use.

Alison Da Costa, who is part of the group, said a recent survey by the parish council found that a majority of people from around Sharow, Copt Hewick, Littlethorpe, Marton-le-Moor and Hutton Conyers wanted the former pub to be put to community use.

Read more:

• Sharow Parish Council leads fight to save village pub

• Campaign to reopen Henry Jenkins Inn suffers hammer blow

• Plan resubmitted to convert Sharow pub into house

The group said the survey received 234 responses via online and the post. Of that number, 95% said they wanted the pub to open with a cafe and shop.

The move comes after Mark Futon, owner of the building, has reapplied to Harrogate Borough Council to change the use of the Half Moon Inn into a four bedroom house.

In documents submitted to the council, Mr Fitton said “all avenues” had been explored to reopen the pub but had proved unviable.

In a planing statement, the developer said:

“It could hardly be clearer that there is no reasonable prospect of the Half Moon Inn re-opening as a viable hospitality venue.

“All avenues for such an opportunity have been fully explored, over an extended period of time, by agents with strong commercial credentials, unrivalled local coverage and a national licenced-premises specialism.”

However, proposals to convert the pub have been long opposed by the parish council.

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

Members of the Kingsley Ward Action Group (KWAG) hope the discovery of badgers will thwart a proposed housing development on Kingsley Road.

Redrow Homes won outline planning permission to build 133 homes on appeal in August 2020 after it was initially refused by councillors on Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee.

A reserved matters application that gives a final rubber-stamp to development is yet to be signed off.

As part of the application, the developer submitted two ecology studies.

These found there were four badger setts in the area but only one or two were still actively used by the animal.

Members of KWAG bought a trail cam, which is a camera that is left outside and captures the movement of animals.

They claim their investigation found evidence of 11 badger setts, 6 of which it says are still active.

Mr Tremble said:

“How can complete amateurs spot this much badger activity so easily when so-called professionals failed completely?”.

KWAG has sent the results of their investigation to HBC councillors.

How the proposed development will look

Badgers and their setts are protected by law.

Developers must have a licence from Natural England to remove or modify a badger sett.

John Hansard from KWAG said the planning application must now be put on hold until the licence is approved, which could take months.

He said:

“There is proof of badgers on site. It’s the breeding season now so they can’t apply for a licence until the end of June. Nothing can happen until then.”

Redrow’s response

Traci Moore, land and planning director for Redrow (Yorkshire), said:

“We are committed to protecting wildlife in and around the proposed development. We have undertaken surveys of local wildlife and submitted ecological reports in line with the outline planning permission, including a detailed badger survey in 2021.

“We have also submitted proposals to reduce the impact of the development on the native badger population. These proposals are subject to ongoing discussion and agreement with the council’s ecologist.”

A well-known Pateley Bridge garage is set to move this year.

Daleside Garage, which has been based on Bridgehouse Gate for the last four years, is set to relocate to another base in the town.

The garage, which offers MOTs and repairs, will move to a site on Corn Close off Low Wath Road in September.

It follows plans being submitted by Chartwell Barns Ltd to Harrogate Borough Council to build a three-storey block of flats on the Daleside site.

Carly Haley, who owns Daleside Garage with her husband Glenn, told the Stray Ferret that the business will not be closing and will instead relocate to a new site.

She said:

“We’ll still be offering MOTs, repairs and tyre checks as normal.

“We just wanted people to know that we will not be closing down.”

Read more:

• Plan resubmitted to convert Sharow pub into house

• ‘Serious concerns’ over 770 homes planned for Harrogate’s Otley Road

• Plans to build 15 flats at Daleside Garage site in Pateley Bridge

The building, which is now owned by the developer behind the apartment plans, has been subjected to various planning applications over the years.

A previous application submitted to the council in 2018 proposed to convert part of the garage into storage space, a laundrette and offices.

The latest plans would see 15 new flats built on the site, along with an electric vehicle charging point and 27 car parking spaces.

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

Developers have lodged plans for 15 new flats in Pateley Bridge.

Chartwell Barns Ltd has tabled the proposal to Harrogate Borough Council to build a three-storey block on the site of Daleside Garage on Bridgehouse Gate.

The proposal also includes an electric vehicle charging point along with 27 car parking spaces.

A total of three one-bedroom, eight two-bedroom and four three-bedroom flats are included in the scheme.

Read more:

• Plan resubmitted to convert Sharow pub into house

• ‘Serious concerns’ over 770 homes planned for Harrogate’s Otley Road

A previous application submitted to the council in 2018 proposed to convert part of the garage into storage space, a laundrette and offices.

At the time, owner Nidderdale Garages, which owns Daleside Garages, said in a planning statement that the site was “surplus to the business’ requirements” and that the proposal would “make more efficient use of the space”.

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

Plans have been resubmitted to convert a former Sharow pub into a house.

Owner Mark Fitton has applied to Harrogate Borough Council to change the use of the Half Moon Inn into a four bedroom house.

A similar application was tabled by Mr Fitton in February 2021, but was later withdrawn.

The village pub and restaurant, on Sharow Lane, opened in 1822 but closed in 2016.

In documents submitted to the council, Mr Fitton said “all avenues” had been explored to reopen the pub but had proved unviable.

In a planing statement, the developer said:

“It could hardly be clearer that there is no reasonable prospect of the Half Moon Inn re-opening as a viable hospitality venue.

“All avenues for such an opportunity have been fully explored, over an extended period of time, by agents with strong commercial credentials, unrivalled local coverage and a national licenced-premises specialism.”

Read more:

• Sharow Parish Council leads fight to save village pub

• Campaign to reopen Henry Jenkins Inn suffers hammer blow

The proposal to convert the pub into a home has long been opposed by Sharow Parish Council.

Speaking to the Stray Ferret previously, parish council clerk Nick Reed said many people in the village did not want to see the change of use granted.

The parish council set up a working group to link into the viability of using the pub for community use.

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