Residents in Harrogate’s Kingsley ward say construction traffic has left them worrying about harmful dust and air pollution — but a “weak” Harrogate Borough Council has done little to clamp down on developers.
Over 700 homes will eventually be built in the ward by five different developers but Kingsley Road and Kingsley Drive are accessed off the busy Knaresborough Road.
This has led to lorries and trucks driving through residential roads to get to the building sites.
Residents say the construction traffic has resulted in vast amounts of dust and dirt from lorries ending up on roads, cars and houses. They say it’s so bad they worry they’ll have to wear masks to protect themselves.
Gary Tremble, from Kingsley Ward Action Group (KWAG), said:
“We have complained for over three years yet to this day the wagons travel down our residential street spewing out dust in summer and dirt in winter, we now even have fully laden uncovered wagons taking dirt into the developments.”
Mr Tremble believes the dust is made up of PM10, an air pollutant typically seen on building sites. When breathed in, it can penetrate deep into the lungs.
Exposure to high concentrations of PM10 has been linked by scientists to asthma attacks, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.
‘We’ve been ignored’
When a development receives planning permission from HBC, conditions are attached that stipulate how housebuilders will minimise the impact of issues including dirt and dust.
This sometimes involves making sure there are onsite wheel cleaners and covering wagons that are carrying materials or waste.
Mr Tremble added:
“We’ve made hundreds of complaints to Harrogate Borough Council but enforcement but are weak. They don’t do anything and we’ve been ignored.”
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Residents criticise key Harrogate planning document as ‘incoherent’
The issue of how effective the council’s planning enforcement team was raised at a council meeting this week.
Conservative councillor for Old Bilton, Paul Haslam, said he and other councillors had received complaints from KWAG accusing the council’s planning enforcement team of not ensuring that conditions were being upheld.
Conservative councillor for the Washburn ward, Victoria Oldham, asked Cllr Haslam if he thought HBC’s planning enforcement team was acting on complaints from residents “in a timeous manner”.
Cllr Haslam said he was concerned that enforcement officers “don’t have enough support”. He said:
“Quite clearly, guidelines are being flaunted [sic] by the developers. We need to make sure we are seen to protect our residents.”
‘Addressing the concerns’
In response to KWAG, a Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said:
Calls to tackle construction vehicles who cause ‘misery’ in Harrogate“We are aware of concerns relating to dust from HGVs entering and exiting the development(s) on Kingsley Road and have allocated a case officer to address these concerns.
“We have discussed the matter with the county council and the developer and have reminded them of actions they must maintain as per the conditions of the planning permission.
“These actions have been actioned – as well as some further recommendation, including road sweeping – by the developer and we will continue to closely assess this situation to ensure they continue to do so.”
A councillor says more should be done to tackle construction vehicles that are making people’s lives a ‘misery’ in residential areas.
There has been an unprecedented levels of housebuilding in the Harrogate district in recent years, which has resulted in an increasing number of trucks, lorries and other construction traffic going to-and-from sites.
At a Harrogate Borough Council meeting last night, Conservative councillor for Old Bilton, Paul Haslam, queried what more the council could do to support residents dealing with disruption.
When a development receives planning permission, conditions are attached that stipulate how housebuilders will minimise the impact of issues such as noise and dust.
But Cllr Haslam said he and other councillors had received complaints from residents that the council’s planning enforcement team was not ensuring that conditions were being upheld.
Cllr Haslam said:
“I’m very concerned at the moment about some building work that’s going on in Harrogate, where it’s close to existing properties. [The housebuilders] have been given permission to build, not to make their lives a misery.
“How can we help officers enforce conditions to ensure that development is conducted in a safe and healthy way?”
He added:
“I have potential building on the edge of my area at the moment. The people who live next to it will have 10 years of disruption.”
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In response, Conservative councillor for Killinghall and Hampsthwaite, Michael Harrison, suggested council officers should meet with the directors of housing companies so they can better understand “how much work they need to do” to support people who live next to building sites.
Conservative councillor for the Washburn ward, Victoria Oldham asked Cllr Haslam if he thought HBC’s planning enforcement team was acting on complaints from residents “in a timeous manner”.
Cllr Haslam said he was concerned that enforcement officers “don’t have enough support”. He said:
Harrogate residents hope badgers will thwart housing scheme“Quite clearly, guidelines are being flaunted by the developers. We need to make sure we are seen to protect our residents.”
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:
Transport assessment for 181 homes at Kingsley Drive ‘fundamentally flawed’“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 transport assessment that suggests Persimmon Homes’ 181-home development on Kingsley Drive will not significantly increase traffic in the area has been called ‘fundamentally flawed’ by a Harrogate building surveyor.
The housebuilder submitted its latest proposal for the site this month after a larger development for 217 homes was rejected by councillors last year.
Persimmon commissioned transport consultant Bryan G Hall to undertake a transport assessment to assess how the homes would impact nearby roads.
At over 500 pages long, his report includes measurements, surveys and conclusions about traffic in the area.
It found the impact of the extra homes on local roads would not be ‘severe’.
The report concluded:
“The residual cumulative impact of the proposed residential development on the road network cannot be considered to be ‘severe’ and there are therefore no traffic or highways related reasons why planning permission should not be granted for this site.”
Visuals of the Persimmon Homes plan for Kingsley Drive.
However, Steve Marshall, owner of surveyors Airedale Surveys and a member of Kingsley Ward Action Group, spent five days reviewing the document, which he called on the council to reject.
Mr Marshall said this was because one of the traffic surveys took place when part of Kingsley Drive was closed due to roadworks.
He also said the report ignored how the extra homes will impact the nearby Empress roundabout.
Disputed surveys
Mr Marshall disputed a claim in the report that Rydal Road, Birstwith Road and Leyland Road, which all have junctions with Kingsley Drive and Knaresborough Road, were not being used as ‘rat runs’.
North Yorkshire County Council, which is in charge of roads in the district, had specifically asked Persimmon to look at the rat run issue in the transport assessment, as well as how fast vehicles were travelling on the three roads.
Persimmon undertook traffic surveys on the roads from July 31 to August 6 2020 but Mr Marshall said this took place when part of Kingsley Drive was closed.
“The bottom half of Kingsley Drive was shut due to road works during the whole period of the survey. This means no one had access to the three surveyed roads along the rat run route.”
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Mr Marshall criticised the report for not taking into account trips generated at two nearby housing developments of 165 homes.
He also said the surveys did not factor in how the homes would impact the Empress roundabout and the Granby Road/Skipton Road junction during rush hour.
Mr Marshall wrote:
“This roundabout causes massive queues at rush hour despite Harrogate Borough Council’s Transport Background Paper of August 2018 saying it is not a problem junction.
“There cannot be any justification for allowing this development as it stands if one of the key assessments and the subject uppermost in the minds of local residents, ie the traffic assessment, is fundamentally flawed.”
Persimmon’s response
In February, representatives from Persimmon, as well as highways consultant Geoff Bowman from Bryan G Hall, fielded questions from residents in Starbeck about the plans, which included the transport assessment.
Residents queried Mr Bowman about the traffic surveys and suggested they did not give an accurate picture of how many cars use the area.
Mr Bowman said:
“There has been very extensive surveys of traffic in the area. There is a perception that we are nasty developers and it’s dead easy to get through planning, but the highways authority are rigorous.”
The Stray Ferret asked Persimmon Homes for a response but we had not received one by the time of publication.