Plans have been submitted to create three wildlife ponds at Breaks Fold Farm in the Washburn Valley.
The farm has submitted the propsoal to North Yorkshire Council to create the ponds, as well as the creation of scrape habitat and associated trenches, dams, spoils.
According to planning documents, the farm covers 90 hectares and the site has been used as agricultural land for more than a century.
The farm also runs a glamping site of tents and campervans. Johnny Vegas previously tried to set up a glamping site on the farm but left after ‘struggling to cope’ with the weather.
In the application document, questions were raised about how necessary the ponds are for agriculture.
Breaks Fold Farm plans for wildlife ponds
The applicants responded:
“Increasing biodiversity on agricultural holdings through wetland creation provides environmental income, therefore justifiable for the purpose of agriculture.
“Wildlife ponds are designed to provide enriched habitat and contribute to sustainable drainage.”
The Stray Ferret has contacted Breaks Fold Farm for further details but has not yet received a response.
Photo of the Week: Hoverfly
This week’s photograph was taken by Alan Day, capturing a close-up of a hoverfly on a flower.
Alan Day
Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.
Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.
This week’s photograph was taken by Heather Middleton, capturing a group of deer looking over the hill at Studley Royal.
Heather Middleton
Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.
Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.
Photo of the Week: River Nidd Wildlife
This week’s photograph was taken by Douglas Young, capturing a pair of otters in the River Nidd, near Hampsthwaite.
Photo of the Week celebrates the Harrogate district. It could be anything from family life to capturing the district’s beauty. We are interested in amateur and professional photographs, in a landscape format.
Send your photographs to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk for a chance to be featured next week, we reserve the right to adjust and crop images to fit into our format.
Parks authority rules out wolves reintroduction to Yorkshire DalesA nature recovery strategy for the Yorkshire Dales will not lead to wolves and big cats roaming the national park, a meeting has been told, but it will set out to encourage action to help struggling species.
A meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority heard agreeing an ecological plan was important as government and private funding available to farmers and landowners in the Dales was likely to be tied to environmental issues.
However, it also heard that a consensus had yet to be agreed between interest groups on several issues, such as the amount of trees which should be planted in the park.
Senior officers said it would not be possible to reach a resolution over all areas of contention, but as fresh government environmental policies were expected the strategy would not be finalised before June next year.
The strategy is being developed after studies identified how the park has significant areas of 17 different habitats and more than 100 different species that are UK priorities and have been facing national declines.
Yorkshire Dales.
It also follows a commitment by interest groups in the park to making “the Yorkshire Dales home to the finest variety of wildlife in England”.
The park’s nationally important wildlife populations include black grouse, rare plants such as bird’s-eye primrose, globeflower and baneberry, scarce invertebrates such as the northern brown argus butterfly and mammals, such as the red squirrel.
It is hoped the strategy will help create networks for the park’s abundant wildlife to increase biodiversity in its surrounding areas.
The draft strategy proposes what officers have described as a “relatively modest” increase in the proportion of the park covered by native woodland from 4.5% to 7% alongside creating nature recovery areas across 15% of the park.
Although both targets have been criticised as insufficently ambitious by some, several members raised concerns over calls to radically change the management of land, and in particular burning of the heather moorland to encourage regrowth and habitats for grouse, following proposals to phase it out.
Environmentalists have cited how a University of Leeds study concluded burning grouse moors degrades peatland habitat, releases climate-altering gases, reduces biodiversity and increases flood risk.
However, Wensleydale farmer Allen Kirkbride told the meeting long heather caused “chaos for square miles” when it caught fire.
He said:
“The idea of not burning heather is ludicrous.”
The authority’s outgoing member champion for the environment, Ian McPherson, said it faced a challenge in deciding how much of the national park should be set aside for nature recovery areas.
He said:
“What we are trying to do is get a good balance between the needs of environmentalists, farmers and land managers.”
Mr McPherson said while the possibility of reintroducing some native species to the area was being considered as part of the strategy it would not see “wolves and lynx and so on roaming the Yorkshire Dales”, but instead seek to raise awareness some species were at a low ebb.
Water voles thriving in new Nidderdale homeTwo hundred water voles released in Nidderdale are thriving in their new habitat, surveys have discovered.
Yorkshire Water released two groups of the endangered animals in 2020 and 2021 at Timble Ings Wood in the Washburn Valley.
Recent surveys suggest they are settling in well to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with signs of the animals up to 1km away from the original release site.
Surveys of the area have found burrows, droppings, and signs of feeding, such as piles of nibbled grass. There have also been regular checks for the water vole’s main predator, the American mink, which has not been spotted.
Philip Tennyson, recreation coordinator at Yorkshire Water said:
“While this is a successful project, water voles are particularly sensitive to disturbance, and the good work we’ve done so far can easily be lost.
“We would urge visitors to Timble Ings Woods to stay on the paths and keep dogs on a lead away from the ponds and watercourses to protect the fragile water vole population.”
Water voles are classed as an endangered species, and have been identified as one of Britain’s fastest declining mammals.
They have been named as a priority species for protection in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and conservation efforts like the one in Nidderdale are crucial in preventing their extinction.
The project is part of Yorkshire Water’s Water Works for Wildlife initiative, which aims to enhance biodiversity in 15 local wildlife sites.
Residents say 53 homes at Knox Lane will ‘decimate’ idyllic sceneOn Knox Lane in the summer and you’ll probably see families walking or on bicycles heading down towards Spruisty Bridge that runs over Oak Beck.
It’s a green corner of Bilton that residents cherish but a group in Knox believes a controversial housing application would destroy the idyllic scene.
North East property developer Jomast wants to build 53 homes on a field on Knox Lane, in an application that has been reduced from 73 homes from when it was first submitted in 2020.
Since the 1980s, different developers have eyed the field for development without success, thanks in part to campaigns by dogged residents.
This time, as the site is allocated in Harrogate Borough Council’s Local Plan, which maps out where new housing developments can take place in Harrogate, it could be their biggest fight yet.
A map of where the homes would be built
Tom Cox has lived in the area for 50 years. A keen nature watcher, he says he’s seen an abundance of wildlife in the field, including protected species. He’s concerned their habitat will be destroyed.
He said:
“I’ve seen deer, foxes, otters and 60 types of birds. It’s extremely good habitat”.
Sue Wrightson added:
“It will be decimated”.
Jomast commissioned an ecological impact assessment by environmental consultants Naturally Wild.
To the residents’ dismay, its report said the site had “moderate ecological value” and any development would “not have a significant impact on protected species or habitat.”
At the time of writing, the application has had 308 objections with none in support. They cite a range of perceived problems with the site, from the electricity pylons that run over the field to potential flooding issues.
But many of the objections make emotional appeals to the council calling on them to reject the plans due to what they believe is its harmful impact on wildlife.
The walk at the bottom of Knox Lane is popular with families.
With the residents smarting about the Naturally Wild report, they paid ecological consultants Smeedem Foreman to write another one, which painted a different picture.
It said the Naturally Wild report was undertaken between January and April, which it called “sub-optimal” months for surveying wildlife.
It added:
“The report lacks sufficient detail with respect to the mapping of habitats present and with no detailed species lists available, the botanical value of these areas has the potential to be underestimated.”
As with almost every application for new housing in Harrogate, concerns have been raised about traffic.
With the busy Skipton Road nearby, and Knox Lane itself a narrow thoroughfare, Bob Wrightson said the roads surrounding the development will soon be “gridlock”.
Mr Wrightson said:
“52 houses, a lot of people have cars, its not been addressed. There might be another 100 cars using these roads and it will be gridlock.”
Jomast’s traffic assessment disputes this and says the homes will not lead to additional congestion.
Alison Hayward said the application is car-dependent and does nothing to encourage people to use sustainable travel.
“There are no EV charging points, no cycle paths, no cycle storage. The development is stuck in the 1980s, it looks back rather than looking forward.”
Perhaps most of all, the residents are unhappy that there has been no attempt by Jomast to form a dialogue with them. They say their voice has been left out of the planning process entirely.
Ms Hayward said:
“It’s bothered a lot of people. They’ve not made an effort and we’ve beem ignored. We emailed the developer for a meeting but we’ve had no response.
Anda Mesaros added:
“It’s disrespectful to the community.”
Jomast and planning consultants Spawforths issued the following joint statement to the Stray Ferret:
“Jomast recognises the concerns of the local residents in respect to the potential impacts of the proposed housing development. However they would like to stress that the Application Site is allocated for housing within Harrogate’s Local Plan. Therefore, it has already been deemed as suitable for residential development by Harrogate Council. The planning application is providing a significant amount of affordable housing, above what is required by planning policy, which will help address the significant shortfall of this type of housing within the town.
“The planning application is supported by a number of specialist technical reports, including a Transport Assessment, which demonstrates the Proposed Development would not lead to any additional congestion of the local roads. Jomast has also commissioned a series of ecological reports, which show that the Proposed Development would deliver a net benefit to biodiversity and the environment through the creation of new wildlife habitats and significant tree and hedgerow planting.
“Two public exhibitions have been carried out in respect to the development of the Site. In addition, Harrogate Council consulted local residents on the allocation of the site for housing during the preparation of their Local Plan.”
Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee is set to consider the plans next month