Villagers protest at proposals for 3,000 homes

The Keep Green Hammerton Green action group gathered outside the Harrogate Borough Council’s office, Crescent Gardens, last night with banners in hand, objecting to reports for the developing local plan which recommend the area as a site for a new settlement.

Prior to entering and putting a question before a full council session, the chairman of Keep Green Hammerton Green Chris Chelton said the group would challenge evidence currently used in report which suggest the area is suitable for the volume of housing. Mr Chelton said: “The details that are coming out are providing flimsy evidence. What it comes down to is that they want to connect 3,000 houses to Green Hammerton, and in the early years that would follow approval of this would mean people relying on use of existing services.

“We have a single school in Green Hammerton, which already has children being taught in the main hall.”

He added: “We are not going to stop fighting, and if they do not listen we will keep on going until the first brick is laid.”

Among the main issues raised by the group was their questioning of data collected using Community Infrastructure Levy calculations (CIL), which evaluate property prices in the area.

The group believes that the decision to recommend Green Hammerton was partly based on figures for property values which were compared to neighbouring Flaxby, which was an alternative option for a development of this size in the local plan.

They believe the figures were skewed by properties located in east Knaresborough which were included among the figures.

Mr Chelton put the question to Harrogate Borough Council cabinet member for planning, Coun Rebecca Burnett.

He said: “How can the Council reassure the residents of Green and Kirk Hammerton villages that the recommendation for the Green Hammerton site is not being driven by the flawed calculation of a higher Community Infrastructure Levy income to Harrogate Borough Council, rather than the wealth of good planning reasons for choosing Flaxby Park?”

Coun Burnett responded by saying to Mr Chelton that the recommendations for housing growth had been based on planning factors, directing housing growth along transport corridors and with environmental concerns and physical limitations, alongside other factors.

Added to this, she noted that the use of Community Infrastructure Levy as measure for planning across the country in the future was uncertain.

On leaving the meeting the group welcomed an offer from the cabinet member for further discussions on the site, but continued to raise concerns over the role of the levy.

Mr Chelton said: “We are not entirely satisfied with her response. She has dismissed the CIL as not a key factor of her decision or recommendations, but in fact it’s a key element of one of two reports on which the planning policy team are basing their recommendations.

“So to dismiss it and say that it is not an influencing factor seems at this stage seems utterly disingenuous,”