Plans to create a new business and industrial site on the southern approach to Harrogate could be progressed next week.

Harrogate Borough Council‘s cabinet will decide on Wednesday whether to begin speaking to developers to gauge interest in the site.

Allocated for employment use in the Harrogate district Local Plan 2014-35, which outlines where development can take place, the site lies along the eastern side of the A61 near Pannal. It is between the railway line and Crimple Beck, north of the Mercedes garage and the M&S Food shop at the petrol station.

A strategic sites masterplanning document prepared by consultants BDP and Colliers will be reviewed by the cabinet as part of the decision next week. It says:

“Crimple Valley Viaduct, to the north-east of the site, is a Grade II* listed building.

“Development of the site should minimise harm to the setting of this designated heritage asset and seek to enhance its significance; this should include retaining key views of the viaduct from within the site and from beyond the site through the site.”

An officer’s report summarising the document said the focus of any development should be on “high quality place-making and low carbon development”, referring to the council’s “aspirations for high-tech/high skilled job creation”.

Access to the site would be via public transport or the A61

The consultants’ report suggests the site could be accessed via traffic lights or a roundabout, with pedestrian and cycle access further south to link with bus stops on Leeds Road and the railway station in Pannal.

It says the site could be used for high-tech manufacturing, research and development, or business headquarters. Buildings would be up to three storeys and 5,000m sq in size.

The total office space allocated for the site is 10,000m sq alongside 31,500m sq of industrial space. The report says:

“In order to support the local economy there is a need to provide a range of office, manufacturing and warehousing accommodation from shared spaces to single occupiers.

“There is also the opportunity to include a hub building at the heart of the development that can offer a mix of business space and shared facilities for the business community.

“The site should feel like an extension of the existing community, rather than a gated ‘estate’. Access to the existing right of way along the eastern boundary of the site is to be retained and enhanced with new pedestrian connections through the site and safe crossing points on Leeds Road.”

With the site designed to encourage sustainable travel, one parking space has been allocated for each 40m sq of office space or 50m sq of industrial space.

As well as tree planting through the site, the document suggests a wildflower meadow and attenuation pond could be created to the north of the site, adjacent to Crimple Beck.

The suggested layout, with industrial space in orange and office in brown

The officers’ report acknowledges that any development of the site is likely to take place after Harrogate Borough Council is abolished next spring, when the new North Yorkshire Council comes into effect. It adds:

“Taking into consideration current market conditions/costs and uncertainties around the new strategic objectives of North Yorkshire Council from April 1, 2023, it is currently not clear how much direct involvement the council should or could have in the development of the site.

“Officers therefore recommend the next steps to be engagement in expressions of interest with developers to test market appetite, focussing on high quality place-making and low carbon development.

“This can then inform a future decision about the appropriate level of local authority involvement and timescales for delivery of the site.”

Read more:

• Fears for trees over plans to build 62 houses at Harrogate plant nursery
• Plans to build 72 flats and care home in Harrogate’s Dragon Road car park

Businesses preparing to return to work after the coronavirus lockdown could be doing so in completely different ways – and employment levels in the Harrogate district could take a hit.

Mike Patterson, head of employment law at Berwins, said many businesses may have found the enforced change actually suits them and they will keep some of the new ways of working even after lockdown ends.

However, he said there are still many tough weeks ahead for businesses, especially as the furlough scheme changes from August.

“Initially, we were dealing with lots of queries about furloughing. We’re now starting to get into post-lockdown, getting business back up and running. A lot of people were waiting for Boris’s roadmap to see the timetable to get people back to work.”

Mike Patterson of Berwins Solicitors

A series of announcements, changes and retractions in advice since the beginning of the crisis, have made it harder for lawyers, accountants and others to keep up with the latest situation in order to advise their clients, Mr Patterson said. The furlough regulations, for example, were produced in one large document and, when the scheme was tweaked, the document was updated but no information was published about what had been changed, leaving advisors to read it repeatedly to find the updates.

The way the announcements were made this week also gave some businesses and employees hardly any notice, from Sunday evening, that they could be expected back at work the following day. Mr Patterson added:

“I would have felt more comfortable if it was a consistent message with the rest of the UK. I like to think I’ve got a bit of common sense, but everybody’s different in what’s normal, what they think they should do.

“You’re saying tomorrow at 8am people who can’t work from home should go to work? You’re putting it back on the employee to take that decision as to whether it’s safe to go in? That’s pretty unfair in terms of lack of notice and lack of planning.”

Now, many businesses are looking at how they can resume more normal working in the coming weeks and months. The extension of the furlough scheme and the possibility of bringing staff back part-time while the economy gets moving again has been met with relief.

“Speaking to a few businesses and seeing what people are doing, that’s quite a welcome move. Businesses are nervous of this cliff edge the chancellor keeps speaking about. It’s not going to be back to normal over night, it’s going to take time. It helps to have flexibility and phased returns.”

Physical presence

The practical aspects of returning to work are at the top of business owners’ lists of priorities, he said. Enabling social distancing and other aspects of health and safety in workplaces all have to be considered, but businesses are also looking at whether returning to previous operations is even necessary or desirable.

“The traditional view of ‘we have got to be physically present,’, that’s potentially going to be something of the past. Their arm has been forced, given this: they have got to adapt and allow home working. It comes back to physical presence and it will impact on the space they need.”

For some businesses, there has been very little change to how they work. For others, whether changing the services they offer or allowing greater flexibility as parents juggle working hours with childcare, it has been a period of operating differently.

Mr Patterson said the return to work will have to have an element of flexibility too, for both employers and employees, as different sectors return to trading at different speeds.

In the long term, Mr Patterson said it is inevitable some businesses will be forced to make cuts:

“The furlough is a welcome safety net for businesses and employers. The reality is it’s maybe a bit of a honeymoon period that will have to come to an end and businesses will have to make difficult decisions.”