In Depth: Where is the infrastructure plan for 4,000 homes in west Harrogate?

With as many as 4,000 homes planned for the Western side of Harrogate, a document is being drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council to nail down the infrastructure requirements of the area and who will pay for it.

HBC is working with developers and North Yorkshire County Council on the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan (WHPP). It will aim to allow for a more joined-up approach to infrastructure, including addressing roads and traffic, rather than assessment on a site-by-site basis.

But residents and councillors have grown frustrated with broken promises about when it will be published.

HBC initially said it would be published in October 2020, which was delayed until March 2021, then September 2021. It now says a draft version will be published in February 2022.

Harlow Hill, Rossett, and Pannal Ash are already some of the most popular residential areas in Harrogate and the stretch of Otley Road from Cardale Park to Beckwithshaw is set to be transformed with new housing developments.

However, the 200-home police training centre scheme in Yew Tree Lane was passed this week before the WHPP has seen the light of day.

Rene Dziabas, chair of Harlow & Pannal Ash Residents Association, told the Stray Ferret he is concerned that the decision not to wait until the plan is published before approving the police training centre scheme will set a precedent.

With a new local authority set to be created for North Yorkshire next year, he’s also worried the plan could be kicked down the road further. He believes staffing issues in the council’s planning department has contributed to the delays.

He said:

“If it’s delayed any further there will be the temptation to let the new unitary authority deal with it. That’s a concern.”

HAPARA is hoping the plan will go some way to tackling congestion and traffic on the west side of Harrogate, which could worsen considerably due to car-dependent housing developments.

“We’d like to see greater frequency of buses, junction improvements, the widening of pavements, cycle paths.

“Subject to appropriate investment, we can then start making improvements, otherwise why are you doing the plan?

He gave some examples of areas that he feels needs improvement:

“Leadhall Lane Marks and Spencers junction is known to be a pinch point, some work needs to be done there to help flow of traffic.

“The Prince of Wales roundabout is another pinch point as is other end of Otley Road and the tiny roundabout in Beckwithshaw.”

Poor communications

HAPARA has been unhappy with the level of consultation offered to residents by HBC during the process.

Mr Dziabas said the council has “confused contact and communications” and people who will be affected by the massive expansion of new housing have not felt like active participants in how the area will change.

He said:

“Not once has the council come back to us and said, ‘This is what we’re thinking, how do you feel this would work?’

“We’ve had no opportunity, all we’ve had from council is process. Communication has been poor.”

Mr Dziabas added:

“Perhaps the council feel if they involve residents too much it will slow the process down, or we might put an idea forward that doesn’t align with what a developer is saying.

“In their mind it might be a lot of extra hard work dealing with the nitty gritty with residents, so they keep us at arm’s length.”

‘Very frustrating’

Liberal Democrat councillor Pat Marsh sits on the 12 person planning committee that decides whether to approve or refuse large housing schemes.

She told the Stray Ferret it has been “very, very frustrating” that councillors are now being asked by officers to approve planning applications in the western side of Harrogate before the WHPP has been published.

She believes the majority of councillors wanted to defer the police training centre scheme until the plan is published, but were “bullied” into approving it by Homes England who threatened legal action.

She said the plan should have been drawn up years ago, before sites were allocated for development in the Local Plan, and that she shoulders some of the blame for that.

“It should have been in place prior to the Local Plan. I’ll hold my hand up for not realising that. Infrastucture is not being dealt with now.”

Cllr Marsh is concerned that even with the WHPP in place, it will be the houses that get built first and the necessary infrastructure such as schools or healthcare facilities could take years to follow.

“It will be the houses that get built first to make the money.”

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Council’s response

In a written statement sent to the Stray Ferret, Conservative councillor Tim Myatt, Harrogate Borough Council’s cabinet member for planning, said the WHPP will create a “clear vision” for infrastructure in west Harrogate.

He said “rather than rush” the council has been making sure the document is right for the town.

“By providing first-class community facilities, school provision, green infrastructure and sustainable travel opportunities, for example, we will be able to achieve the WHPPs goals and objectives.

“A significant amount of work – by qualified experts – has gone into what has been produced so far and we will continue to work hard until we’re comfortable we can achieve the best outcome in terms of quality of development and delivery of infrastructure.

“Rather than rush and produce a plan that fails to deliver this vision, we are taking a planned and strategic approach and anticipate concluding work on the WHPP in the New Year alongside an addendum to the Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) thereafter.”

In response to HAPARA’s claim that residents had not been consulted, Cllr Myatt said several suggestions from residents have helped to shape the document.

He added:

“Although there is no statutory requirement to consult on the preparation of the WHPP, we value residents’ views.

“And a number of suggestions have helped shaped the WHPP, so I’d like to thank those residents for their valuable feedback.

“We will also engage with local stakeholders, of which HAPARA is one, in January to help achieve a WHPP that sets a benchmark for future communities across the Harrogate district.”

Consultation launched for 480 homes on Harrogate’s Otley Road

Homes England has begun a public consultation on plans to build 480 homes at Bluecoat Wood, opposite Cardale Park and Harrogate police station.

The government housing agency bought the site this year after previous plans to develop it stalled. It plans to call the development Bluecoat Park.

The site covers 28 hectares of largely green fields and homes would wrap around Horticap.

The scheme would include a new pitch for Pannal Ash Cricket Club, a sports hub and a children’s play area. Homes England said 40% of the homes would be “affordable”.

A new community woodland would also be planted.

The consultation, which will end on January 10, will inform the submission of a full planning application to Harrogate Borough Council. A website has been created for people to submit their thoughts on the scheme.

Harrogate Borough Council‘s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, the council’s plan for development in the district until 2035, says 450 homes can be built on the site.

Traffic concerns

Separate plans for 780 homes and a new primary school have been proposed by Taylor Wimpey and Redrow at nearby Bluecoat Wood on Otley Road.

Local residents group Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Association has raised concerns about congestion on Otley Road as well as extra traffic through nearby villages such as Beckwithshaw, North Rigton and Burn Bridge.

Homes England said its Bluecoat Park development would help inform the West Harrogate Parameters Plan, a document that will assess transport and infrastructure needs associated with wider plans to build up to 4,000 homes on the western side of Harrogate.

The plan was expected last year but has been delayed until February 2022.

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The site’s history

Housing has been mooted at Bluecoat Wood for many years.

In February 2016, HBC granted planning permission to a partnership of developers called HTH Harrogate LLP to build 450 homes.

It followed an earlier refusal of permission on the grounds of road safety and traffic flow problems.

However, Homes England bought the site in February after the developer pulled out.

In the summer, Homes England submitted an environmental impact assessment for 530 homes on the site. The number has now been reduced.

Disused Bilton car park to be used for council homes

Revised plans for five council homes on a disused car park in Harrogate have been approved at a second attempt.

Harrogate Borough Council’s housing team was sent back to the drawing board to rethink its plans for the site at Dene Park, Bilton, in May.

But the scheme has now gained approval after a planning committee meeting yesterday.

Councillors said previous concerns over the layout and designs had been addressed, although there were still questions over the loss of the car park.

Councillor Sue Lumby, a Conservative who represents Harrogate Coppice Valley, said:

“I have received a letter from a number of residents who are very concerned about parking. If cars are forced to park on pavements, it is going to make access for buses and refuse vehicles difficult.”

Gillian Wood, the council’s housing growth manager, responded by saying the car park was “grossly under-occupied” and that 12 new parking spaces would be built for the use of all residents over nearby grass verges.

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She said:

“This will reduce parking on the street.

“We have been monitoring the car park for quite a long time now and we are finding there are generally three cars on there.

“People have a preference to park outside their property, so if we can provide 12 off-street spaces that is 12 cars off the street, which should help.”

1,800 households on council waiting list

There are around 1,800 households on the council’s housing waiting list and the housing team said the car park would help provide “much-needed” accommodation for these residents.

Councillor Pat Marsh, the Liberal Democrat leader, also said the plans should be welcomed for this reason.

She said:

“There are people parking at the site, but it is very small in numbers. To me, what is more important is the almost 2,000 people on our housing waiting list.

“I’m really pleased the council is moving forward with this.”

Councillors unanimously voted to approve the plans at Tuesday’s meeting.

Controversial 200-home Pannal Ash scheme approved

Harrogate Borough Council‘s planning committee has voted to approve Homes England‘s plan to build 200 homes on the site of the former police training centre in Harrogate.

Councillors debated the application for almost three hours today with discussion focused on traffic congestion and the loss of a football pitch on the site.

Seven voted in favour, three against and John Mann, whose Harrogate Pannal ward would be affected by the scheme, abstained.

Homes England, which is the government housing agency, had permission to build 161 homes on the Yew Tree Lane site but wanted to increase this by 23% to 200 homes by building on the pitch.

The planning committee voted in June against a recommendation to approve the application.

Instead it deferred the scheme pending publication of the West of Harrogate Parameters Plan, which will assess transport and infrastructure needs associated with wider plans to build up to 4,000 homes on the western side of Harrogate.

Councillors were told a draft version of the parameters plan would not be published until February 2022.

However, this time they decided to approve the housing scheme, with a representative of Homes England suggesting it would consider legal action if the application was deferred again.

More to follow on this story

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Eco-development could be catalyst for green housing in Harrogate district

There are hopes nine ‘eco-homes’ that could be built near Knaresborough will be a catalyst for greener housebuilding in the Harrogate district.

Ben Holmes, from Birstwith, has submitted a planning application to Harrogate Borough Council for the cutting-edge development, which would be built to strict environmental standards and include solar panels, air-source heat pumps and super-tight insulation.

There would even be a communal vegetable garden to reduce the need to drive to shops.

A different model

Mr Holmes’ proposed scheme for York Road in Flaxby would be a community self-build development, which is a different model of housebuilding from what is usually seen.

If he is granted planning permission, he will install infrastructure, such as paths, water, drainage and a communal area, on the site.

He will then sell each of the nine plots to people who want to build their own home. The buyers then hire an architect and builder and design a home to suit their family’s needs.

Mr Holmes’ said this allowed for a customisable approach rather than buying identikit cookie-cutter homes on a large estate.

He said:

“You see these houses and they’ve all got their gas boilers. It is wrong way to build houses. Your big developers get as many homes on as possible and there is a lack of variation and creativity. It is soulless.

“There is a different way of building houses.”

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Lower energy bills

Harrogate Borough Council has a register of about 200 people who want to build their own home. Mr Holmes said there is an appetite in the district who people who want to have more of a say in how their home is built.

Anyone buying a plot to build their home will have to abide by a framework of environmental rules.

This includes Passivhaus certification and the Home Quality Mark from BRE.

Developed in Germany in the 1990s, Passivhaus is seen as a game-changer for low-carbon housing. It’s an innovative design code that prioritises insulation so that a home doesn’t need any heating or cooling at all, resulting in minimal energy bills.

There is only a handful of Passivhaus homes in the district, including the Larners’ house on Bogs Lane in Harrogate.

Mr Holmes also said the houses may be factory-built, bypassing much of the polluting construction process that comes with traditional bricks and mortar homes.

He added:

“Hopefully this site will act as a catalyst for the area to build more Passivhaus. It’s a high bar to get to that standard.”

Harrogate council gets £100,000 to help turn brownfield sites into housing

The government has awarded Harrogate Borough Council almost £100,000 to help turn three brownfield sites in Pannal, Ripon and Sharow into social housing.

Harrogate is one of 15 councils to receive funding from the £75m Brownfield Land Release Fund, which aims to build more affordable homes.

The three sites to be awarded funding are council-owned garages that HBC wants to demolish and replace with social housing. These are:

Holmefield Road in Ripon (£35,000), Church Close in Sharow (£30,000) and Pannal Green in Pannal (£30,000).

The plans for Ripon and Sharow have already received planning permission.

In October, HBC was awarded £50,000 from the same fund to bring forward housing on two underused garage sites in Bilton and Knaresborough.

A council spokesperson said: 

“This is a fund specifically aimed at the cost of infrastructure requirements on council-owned land.

“By helping meet these costs, sites will become viable for development, either by the local authority directly or by private developers, enabling the site to be placed on the open market.”

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The Harrogate district has an acute shortage of homes built for social rent.

Last month The Stray Ferret reported that just 52 social homes were built last year in the Harrogate district, despite there being 1,867 households on the social housing waiting list.

Lib Dem leader on Harrogate Borough Council Cllr Pat Marsh, who also sits on the council’s planning committee, said the council needs to be more proactive instead of relying on developers to build them.

52 social homes built in Harrogate despite 1,800 households stuck on waiting list

Just 52 social homes were built last year in the Harrogate district, despite there being 1,867 households on the social housing waiting list.

The latest annual figures were published by the government yesterday.

Social homes are low-cost homes rented to tenants by housing associations or a local council. It is the only type of housing where rents are linked to local incomes with any increases limited by the government.

The charity Shelter says social housing is the only genuinely affordable type of “affordable” housing.

Affordable housing also includes homes sold under shared ownership schemes and those sold at 80% under the market rate.

The figures for the Harrogate district were criticised by both the local Liberal Democrat and Labour parties.

Lib Dem leader on Harrogate Borough Council Cllr Pat Marsh, who also sits on the council’s planning committee, said the numbers were “alarming but not surprising”.

She said the council needs to be more proactive instead of relying on developers to build them.

“New homes for social rent are being built on predominantly small infill sites such as former council garage sites and are relatively low in numbers.

“There doesn’t seem to be much of an emphasis on the council developing larger sites with social housing. When there are so many people on the housing waiting list this seems to be letting our residents down. We cannot just rely on developers providing affordable homes on their sites, as welcome as these truly are, they will not solve the problem.

“The council needs to be more proactive and that includes the new authority when it is up and running in 2023. We owe it to those people needing houses.”

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The figure of 52 is an improvement on recent years. In the three years prior to 2020/21, just 18 social homes were built out of a total of 2,355 new houses.

Margaret Smith, chair of the Harrogate & Knaresborough Constituency Labour Party, said the amount of social housing built in the last few years has been an “absolute disgrace”.

“It reflects really badly on the council and all its councillors when the waiting list for social housing is so large.”

According to Harrogate Borough Council, 359 new affordable homes were built in 2020/21 but Ms Smith said that not enough of these were genuinely affordable homes for social rent.

Ms Smith added:

“One assumes that social housing is not considered as much of a priority as the other categories in ‘affordable’.”

The Stray Ferret asked Harrogate & Knaresborough Conservative Party for a response, but we did not receive one at the time of publication.

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said:

“Although we are limited by the amount of land available to us, and the high sale price of land on the open market, 359 new affordable homes were provided by Harrogate Borough Council, our partner housing associations and through the planning system last year (2020/21). In the first six months of this year, 170 new affordable homes have also been provided.

“There are currently 1,867 households on the housing waiting list. We urge anyone with a local connection to Harrogate district who would be interested in a council or housing association property to apply to join the list.”

Staveley villagers begin fight against 22-home development

Residents in Staveley are mobilising against a 22-home development that they say will damage the appearance of the picturesque village.

Two weeks ago Jack Lunn Properties submitted plans to Harrogate Borough Council to build three one-bedroom, 13 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom homes on Main Street in Staveley.

The rural site is not allocated for development in the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which outlines where planning will take place.

Residents say this means that the development should not go ahead.

Residents met at the village hall on Thursday evening to form an action group to fight the plans.

Staveley resident Graham Bowland, who is a member of the group named SV2, called on HBC to refuse the plans.

He said:

“Once a field is given over to developers, it’s lost forever and the nature and ecological benefits it provides are given over to concrete, cars and CO2 emissions. Housing is needed of that we can all agree, it’s a question of where and how many.”

The village has a population of 430 and is between Boroughbridge and Knaresborough.

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The site isn’t in the Local Plan, which in normal circumstances would mean it’s highly unlikely the development would be granted planning permission.

However, the application has been brought forward through a rural exception scheme, which allows councils to grant planning permission for affordable housing in the open countryside if a developer can prove there is a need for it.

The government defines affordable as homes sold at 80% of the market rate or homes for social rent. 

Mr Bowland said villagers fought against a previous application for 13 homes on the site in 2019 but it was withdrawn.

“We expressed their anger at the application and we had substantial support and well-argued planning points against the proposal.”

The Stray Ferret contacted Jack Lunn Properties for a response but we did not receive one at the time of publication.

Harrogate former metalworks could be demolished for housing

Plans have been submitted to demolish the former Franklyn Metal Works on Strawberry Dale Square so it can be replaced with housing.

Developer Hodgson-Jones Developments is proposing to build three four-bedroom houses on the site, which was most recently used by the builder’s merchant Wrayways until May 2020.

For 60 years the site was home to Franklyn Metal Works before closing in 1992.

Planning documents say the buildings should be demolished as it would need substantial investment for it to be reused for commercial purposes.

The plans include five car parking spaces and three electric vehicle charging points.

In 2018, planning permission was granted to demolish some other buildings on the same site to build five homes.

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Fears Nidderdale could become ‘barren’ unless more affordable homes are built

A lack of affordable homes in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is forcing young and low-paid families to move away, a meeting has heard.

Members of Harrogate Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny commission last night called for greater action to bring forward more affordable homes in the area, which has seen average property prices climb to around £320,000, according to Zoopla.

The AONB covers around two-thirds of the Harrogate district but only has 9% of its population and councillor Tom Watson, who represents the Nidd Valley ward, expressed fears that it could become “barren”.

He said:

“If we don’t have small developments in the area, village schools are going to close, pubs are already on the way out and village shops are also going to go.

“The AONB is there to protect the countryside, but we have got to make sure the area is a living one and not barren.”

227 households on waiting list

Created in 1994, the AONB was introduced to conserve the countryside with levels of protection from developments.

A total of 253 homes were recently proposed at sites in Darley, Dacre, Summerbridge and Pateley Bridge under the council’s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35. But government planning inspector ruled that they would have had too great an impact.

Since then, a growing number of residents have struggled to get a footing on the property ladder with 227 households currently on the council’s waiting list for social housing in Upper Nidderdale.

And with an average of just 20 vacancies becoming available each year, the waiting list would take around 10 years to clear if no more households came forward.

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Councillor Pat Marsh, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrats, described the situation as “really sad” and said efforts to build affordable homes on small plots of council-owned land were only a “tiny drop in the ocean”.

Council planners said they were also demanding affordable homes be built at developments of more than 10 properties to try tackle the problem.

Smaller profits

However, Jenny Kerfoot, executive officer for housing growth at the council, said landowners were often reluctant to bring forward plans for affordable housing because of the smaller profits involved.

She added the council was hopeful these landowners have “given up hope that their land is worth a lot of money” now that the Local Plan has been adopted and any large developments have been ruled out.

She said:

“There won’t be any of these big sites in the AONB or predominantly for market housing so it’s our intention now to approach those landowners.”

Councillor Victoria Oldham, a Conservative who represents the Washburn ward, said another possible solution would be the conversion of disused farm buildings, but she added any new developments were often met with opposition from locals.

She said:

“We all know little pockets of land in the area where a pair of semis could easily go, but half of the problem would be the negativity from parish councils or people in the immediate vicinity.

“I’m pretty much against large developments in the AONB because we haven’t got the transport facilities. A lot of places don’t even have shops or post offices – and you can forget banking.

“But one or two houses in areas would be of benefit as something needs to be done.”