local plan Archives - Page 3 of 5

Funding sought for green belt reviewCall for halt in further housing developments in west of HarrogateNorth Yorkshire Council issues ‘call for sites’ for new planning blueprint

North Yorkshire Council has begun the process of developing a new planning blueprint for the county.

The local authority is now accepting call for sites submissions as part of its plans to draw up Local Plan.

The Local Plan will set out where development can take place across North Yorkshire over the next 15 to 20 years.

The Harrogate District Local Plan was adopted in 2014 and was set to be in place until 2035.

However, following the abolition of Harrogate Borough Council and the formation of the unitary authority, North Yorkshire Council is now in the process of drawing up the new North Yorkshire Local Plan, which will replace existing plans for former district authority areas.

As part of the process, landowners or developers have until June to offer their sites for consideration for the new Local Plan.

The council said in a statement sites can be “put forward for any use or designation”. These include housing; employment and commercial development; retail and leisure; renewable energy generation and other environmental enhancement schemes.

Those submitting sites are advised to provide as much detail about the land and intended use as possible, the council said, adding this would enable the local authority to “consider the impacts of the site”.

The council also said it will take “expert advice” on the impact of each proposed site, including the effects on local schools and health services, sewage capacities, wildlife and the infrastructure of surrounding roads.

Nic Harne, the council’s director of community development said:

“The call for sites represents a crucial early stage in our local plan preparations and we welcome submissions from across North Yorkshire.

“However, submitting a site for consideration does not necessarily mean it will be taken forward for development. This exercise is not the planning application process and at this early stage, it is often the case that more sites are submitted than are needed to meet the future needs of the area.”

The council said it would be a “lengthy process that will take several years to complete, including an independent examination of the plan and all of the proposed sites by an appointed planning inspector”.

It added:

“When submitted, these sites will be carefully assessed by planning officers with advice taken from both internal and external specialists on a range of matters from flooding and heritage to impact on the local roads, schools and ecology.”

The news comes just over a month after councillors backed a plea to exclude Knox Lane, in the Bilton area of Harrogate, from the new Local Plan.

Teeside developer Jomast’s plans to build 53 homes off Knox Lane (pictured) were refused last September. However, the Stray Ferret revealed this week the developer has now lodged an appeal with the government’s Planning Inspectorate against the decision.

North Yorkshire Council aims to adopt the revised Local Plan by late 2028.

People will be able to comment on submitted sites at a later date.

Councillors back plea to remove Knox Lane site from local plan

Harrogate and Knaresborough councillors will ask officials drawing up a new map for housebuilding in North Yorkshire to consider removing the 53-home Knox Lane site.

Developer Jomast has seen proposals at the location repeatedly thwarted by council planning committees, most recently in September.

The plans have been controversial in Bilton and Knox with residents claiming the development will destroy wildlife and a green corner of the Harrogate suburb.

More than 2,200 people have signed a petition calling on North Yorkshire Council to remove the site, known as H2, from inclusion in the new countywide local plan it’s working on.

If the Knox Lane site were excluded, it would significantly reduce the chances of houses ever being built there.

However, Jomast could be keen to secure planning permission before the new local plan is finalised in four years as the site is included in the current Harrogate district local plan.

Campaigners Margaret Cockerill, Alison Heyward and Jill Harrison collecting signatures.

Alison Hayward, who organised the petition, addressed councillors at the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee in Harrogate this morning.

Ms Hayward said:

“This community is made of individuals and families who treasure our peaceful natural surroundings and historic value. This community has residents who care and are worried about what will happen, and what we shall all lose if housing developments are allowed in H2.

“Including the site in the local plan would contradict the principles of sustainable and community-centred development.”

Councils are legally obliged to have a local plan that sets out where houses can be built over a minimum 15-year period.

The new North Yorkshire Council local plan is still in the early stages and officers are expected to issue a call for sites soon.

Site layout for the proposed Knox Lane scheme.

Councillor Paul Haslam, a Conservative for Bilton and Nidd Gorge, said if houses were built at Knox Lane residents would suffer because it was not near a bus stop or other local facilities.

He said:

“Imagine walking Knox Lane in the dark to get the 36 bus. There are other issues around adding to congestion, access to emergency services, flooding and building techniques required.

“Residents have made a constructive local-based consideration for us.”

Cllr Peter Lacey, a Liberal Democrat for Coppice Valley and Duchy, proposed a motion to ask North Yorkshire Council to give “serious consideration” to removing Knox Lane from the local plan.

Cllr Peter Lacey

The motion was backed by all councillors except Cllr Hannah Gostlow, a Liberal Democrat for Knaresborough East, who abstained because she sits on the council’s development plan committee overseeing the local plan process.

The Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee has an advisory role so any decision on whether Knox Lane is included in the local plan will be made at a later date.

Harrogate district residents to be consulted on new housing plan

North Yorkshire Council is set to consult residents on a new local plan that will guide decisions on housing and infrastructure in the Harrogate district over the next two decades.

The North Yorkshire Local Plan will set out where new developments will take place, along with policies and strategies that planning applications will be considered against.

Once adopted, it will replace the existing local plan for the Harrogate district.

As part of the first stage of a five-year process to create the plan, residents are being encouraged to sign up to a new online portal that will enable North Yorkshire Council to keep them informed about when consultations and engagement will take place and how to have their say.

Cllr Derek Bastiman, the council’s executive member for open to business, said:

“Anyone with an interest in what, where, when and how development could take place in the county during the next two decades is encouraged to register their details on the portal.”

A consultation is due to start this month about the council’s new Statement of Community Involvement, which will set out how it will consult people on planning, as well as early engagement about the local plan.

Anyone already registered on the existing Harrogate District Local Plan database will be contacted by the council about the new portal.

Those not yet registered can sign up to the database at www.northyorks.gov.uk/localplan or call the council on 0300 131 2 131, stating ‘Local Plan’ when prompted.

Council to approve £400,000 to draw up new housing plan

North Yorkshire Council is set to spend £400,000 on creating a new housing plan for the county.

The Local Plan will guide where land can be used for housing and employment for decades to come.

It will replace the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which outlines where development can take place across the district between 2014 and 2035.

The old plan was published by Harrogate Borough Council, which was abolished at the end of March.

The new North Yorkshire Council executive next week will recommend approving a sum to help progress work on the first year of the countywide plan.

This will include commissioning “key technical evidence”, such as flood, transport and housing needs assessments.

Gary Fielding, corporate director for strategic resources at North Yorkshire Council, said in a report a full cost for the plan will be published at a later date.

He said:

“The preparation of a new Local Plan for the whole of North Yorkshire is now required and involves pulling together multiple work streams across council services.

“Discussions are underway with several services including highways to fully understand the technical evidence required to support a new plan and the resource implications involved.

“Benchmarking is also underway to understand any cost efficiencies of pulling together evidence for seven former district authorities.

“A full report on budgets will be pulled together which addresses the resource and staffing implications for developing a Local Plan over the next five year.”

The plan will plot where housing and development can take place over the next 30 years, including across the Harrogate district.

Conservative councillors on the authority’s executive agreed to draw up the Local Plan last December.

Plans rejected for 20 homes and 12 glamping pods in Nidderdale

Planners have rejected a bid to build 20 homes and 12 glamping pods at the former Nidd Valley Saw Mills.

Wakefield-based Milner Homes submitted plans to redevelop the former mill alongside the River Nidd at Dacre Banks.

The mill was sold to the developer in 2020 after its former owner retired.

Milner Homes, planned to convert the mill into five homes, and build a further 15 two to four-bedrooms homes, as well as a dozen glamping pods.

It said the proposal, submitted last year, would “create a distinctive residential development which is sympathetically designed to respect the surrounding built and natural environment” and “promote sustainable tourism”.

But North Yorkshire Council refused the application this week.

The housing and glamping pod scheme as outlined for the Nidd Valley Saw Mills site.

Trevor Watson, assistant director of planning, listed nine reasons for refusal.

He said “no exceptional circumstances” for the scheme, which is outside the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35 for development, had been demonstrated.

Other reasons included “a significant, adverse landscape and visual effect upon the landscape and scenic beauty of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”, “insufficient evidence that the continued use of the site for employment purposes is not feasible or viable” and flood concerns.

Mr Watson added:

“The proposed layout creates a scheme that is of poor quality, does not create a safe and accessible environment or reflect the principles of good, sustainable layout design.”

Hartwith cum Winsley Parish Council objected because the application was outside the local plan boundary and also because of highways and noise concerns.

Residents demand progress on west Harrogate infrastructure plan

Residents’ groups in the west of Harrogate have expressed “total dissatisfaction” with infrastructure improvements in the area.

Seven parish councils and residents’ associations shared their frustrations with the lack of progress as thousands of new homes are built.

They said they had been promised a draft document almost a year ago but were yet to see it, or any other progress.

Rene Dziabas, chairman of Harrogate and Pannal Ash Residents’ Association, spoke on behalf of the groups at North Yorkshire Council‘s Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee last week.

He said:

“At the time, we expressed the view that much of this work came over as incoherent and lacking any real structure. We were assured that a complete infrastructure strategy and associated delivery schedule would be made available in October of last year.

“Council representatives assured us that these documents would include clear objectives, clear deliverables, timings, supporting data and financial costings. This was a council commitment, not one initiated by us as stakeholders.

“Yet here we are in mid-2023 and the latest position is that consultants are still looking at the viability of what previous consultants have proposed.So far we have seen no hard detail whatsoever in relation to the infrastructure strategy and delivery schedule and no offer of meaningful engagement with the community.

“Recent correspondence would seem to indicate further delays therefore our overall concern is that this work when it eventually emerges will deliver an ineffective and inadequate package.”

Mr Dziabas said there were 4,000 new homes being built around the west of Harrogate, “the equivalent of a small town”.

Residents were concerned about the impact not just on roads, but on medical facilities, schools, buses and other infrastructure.

He said the local plan, which sets out where development can happen, was being put together more than a decade ago, yet there had been no changes to infrastructure to cope with the building that had already taken place.

He added:

“The reality is that we are now some years on and we see nothing that convinces us that there’s any sort of plan in place that will help to mitigate strains on the infrastructure to the west of Harrogate.”

In response, NYC’s planning and transport departments issued a joint statement, which was read out by meeting clerk Mark Codman.

It said the local plan and related documents set a “clear framework” for development, while section 106 agreements with developers were used to leverage investment for infrastructure improvements.

A review and costings exercised had been commissioned by the previous councils, it said, and would provide “clarification and certainty”. It added:

“The complex nature of the work means it is not yet complete. Officers are prioritising this work, however the nature of strategic projects does sometimes involve unforeseen delays.”

Cllr Chris Aldred, who represents High Harrogate and Kingsley for the Liberal Democrats, said he was in agreement with the residents.

He recalled hearing a similar call for progress at a meeting a year before, and said he was frustrated to be in the same position now. He added:

“Really, we do need to get our act together on these matters, because people are living in a state of flux where nothing is happening and it’s not fair to the residents.

“I strongly want the executive to get on top of this. I know we’ve had the distraction of local government reorganisation and eight councils into one, but that has now been achieved and we really need to move on with these matters.

“i don’t want to be sitting here in a year’s time and having similar presentations from parish councils.”

‘No more new houses’: Harrogate residents and councillors call on council to remove sites from Local Plan

Residents and councillors who are facing the prospect of thousands of homes being built around Harlow Hill have called on North Yorkshire Council to remove sites from its new Local Plan.

Around 50 people attended the Green Hut on Harlow Avenue last night for a meeting of Harlow & Pannal Ash Residents Association (HAPARA).

Up to 4,000 homes could be built in the Western arc of Harrogate but there have been long-standing concerns that the area’s roads, schools and healthcare facilities will not be able to cope.

Residents were dismayed at the publication of a ‘parameters plan’ document last year that was drawn up by Harrogate Borough Council to identify infrastructure requirements for the area.

Plans for 770 homes and a primary school on land behind RHS Harlow Carr has already been submitted by Anywl Land and Redrow Homes.

On the other side of the road, Homes England has submitted plans to build 480 homes.

The homes would be built in phases meaning residents living in the area could face a decade or more of disruption.

Neither application on Otley Road has been approved yet and residents at the meeting said there was a glimmer of hope that North Yorkshire Council could remove the sites when it develops its new county-wide Local Plan.

Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan will be replaced by the document before 2028.

Malcolm Margolis said HBC’s plan was “obviously out of date and needs changing.”

He said:

“I read about 50 local authorities have cancelled their Local Plan and started again. I can’t understand why North Yorkshire cant take a similar approach and revisit all this.”

One woman said:

“The government says we don’t need as many houses as before. It seems sensible to me as a layperson why aren’t these plans revisited and some sites taken out?”

Conservative councillor for Oatlands & Pannal, John Mann, said he will be pushing the new authority to reconsider sites that have not already been granted planning permission.

He said:

“I will be insisting we look afresh at some of these sites that are in the plan and have not yet come forward and I will call for these sites to be revisited.”

However, chair of Haverah Park with Beckwithshaw Parish Council, Derek Spence, said residents would have to be realistic as the new Local Plan is five years away from completion and in that time developers would look to secure planning permission.

Cllr Spence said:

“If they see that door closing what are they going to do? Commercially, they’ll start putting in planning applications. It’s pretty obvious. If you were them that’s what you’d have to do to protect your investment.”

Councillor calls for housebuilding in Harrogate to be paused

A councillor has called for a pause in housebuilding in Harrogate while work on a new local plan for the whole of North Yorkshire is drawn up.

In December, members of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive approved the creation of a new local plan, which must be finalised within five years of North Yorkshire Council being formed on April 1.

It will identify land that can be developed and will replace the seven local plans that are currently used by the soon-to-be-abolished district and borough councils.

This includes Harrogate Borough Council’s Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which was adopted in 2020 and says over 13,000 homes can be built between 2014-2035. The council has said the document will guide planning decisions until the new local plan is created.

Harrogate’s local plan has led to large new housing developments being built in almost every corner of the district. Last month, approval was given to 162 more homes on Kingsley Drive in Harrogate and 1,300 homes at Clotherholme in Ripon.

But councillors have heard repeated concerns about whether the district’s roads, schools and GP practices can cope with the increase in housing.

The thorny issue came up at a full meeting of North Yorkshire County Council on Friday.

Statistics released in the government’s last Housing Delivery Test revealed 1,641 homes — 266% above target — were built in the district between 2018 and 2021.

This led Liberal Democrat councillor for the High Harrogate and Kingsley division, Chris Aldred, to ask North Yorkshire County Council’s Conservative executive member for planning for growth, Simon Myers, if the new council would consider pausing new applications in areas where these government targets are being met.

He said:

“There are areas within the county where we’re well ahead of scheduled housing delivery targets. In Harrogate we are 200% over-target according to the government’s own statistics.

“While we’re developing a new local plan for the county, could you consider in areas where we are well ahead of delivery, we actually pause the application process so we don’t get any houses in areas where we might not have done when we’ve got the new local plan.”

The new council will create six new planning committees to oversee decisions across parliamentary constituency areas, such as Harrogate and Knaresborough and Skipton and Ripon.

They will be set up with councillors from across the political spectrum voting on whether significant planning applications go ahead.

‘Misleading’ figure

After the meeting, Cllr Myers told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the 200% figure was misleading. He said:

“Essentially, Harrogate has only just caught up with its own housing targets. It isn’t 200% over. The development is all in accordance with the local plan and to halt development would put Harrogate at risk of the plan being seen as out of date and open the possibility of speculative development. And of course with development we hope to deliver affordable housing which is sorely needed in every part of the county.

“The figure of 200% ‘over delivery’ was published in the government’s housing delivery test calculation pre-adoption of the Harrogate local plan. This was based on delivery against the standard methodology figure that does reflect an accurate picture of need. If you look at delivery against the actual plan-target, the figure is lower.

“In summary, the 200% figure is misleading and the higher-than-plan-target delivery rates should not be cause for alarm as they reflect positive progress on addressing a significant shortfall and reflect a planned trajectory.”

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‘Misleading’ figure