Homes scheme ‘biggest attack on our green space for decades’

LEADING councillors have condemned plans to build thousands of new homes in Harrogate as the biggest attack on the area’s green spaces for decades, as consultation on the controversial programme gets under way.

Harrogate Council has set a housing growth target of more than 5,000 new homes – 390 for each year throughout the area up to 2023-24 – to address a critical lack of affordable housing.

Last year, consultation over building homes in the rural parts of the district such as Pateley Bridge and Pannal produced a wave of opposition to the plans, leading to the controversial strategy being delayed so the council could effectively consider residents’ comments.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Now an eight-week consultation on proposals for urban areas across Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough is set to take place from Friday next week, as critics complain that not enough is being done to address serious concerns over a lack of improvements to infrastructure to accompany the new homes.

The former Harrogate Council Cabinet member for planning, transport and economic development, Jim Clark, oversaw the rural consultation. Coun Clark, who is also the Harrogate Harlow representative on North Yorkshire County Council, said: “This is the biggest attack on the green space of Harrogate for decades.

“The whole thing has to be thought out very carefully.

“I don’t see how we can go ahead with building these homes without the right infrastructure.

“We haven’t had a proper assessment of the infrastructure.

“There are no roads that are going to be built to cope with that amount of traffic and there isn’t the ability to make these changes.

“We really need people to make their views known on this.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Coun Bill Hoult, the Liberal Democrat representative for Knaresborough on the county council, said 800 new homes are planned in the town as part of the consultation leading to an estimated 1,600 extra cars on its already choked roads.

“Unless we address the congestion issues, they are building up problems for the future and degrading the quality of life for the people that live here,” he said.

“Air quality in Bond End is so bad that it is now an air quality management area and parts of the High Street are only just below acceptable limits.

“Nobody doubts that these problems are caused by bad road layouts and an excess of exhaust fumes from slow moving traffic.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“If we are going to think about building these houses then we have got to think about sorting out the infrastructure and there is no provision for doing that.”

The council is planning a huge consultation on the proposals between September 9 and November 4.

Over eight weeks, 51,000 newspapers will be delivered to homes across Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough, 16,000 flyers will be delivered to homes and businesses, 3,000 letters will be sent to landowners and parish councils and six public exhibitions of the plans will take place.

The Harrogate district falls within the so-called Golden Triangle along with York and Leeds and includes some of the most sought-after postcodes in the north for househunters.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The average property price in the district for the first three months of this year was £277,332, which represented a 14.7 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2009.

A detached property in the Harrogate district costs, on average, nearly £400,000.

The council has stressed that the strategy will strike a “good balance” between providing much-needed affordable homes while making sure that parts of the district are not swamped by new housing developments.

The Cabinet member for planning, transport and economic development, Richard Cooper, said: “This is the reason we are having a consultation. We want as many views as possible so we can make a fully informed decision.”