Parish council facing defeat over Christian centre expansion plan

Scargill House, a Christian residential and educational centre near Kettlewell, wants to expand and earlier this year the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s planning committee voted to approve the scheme, subject to seeing the terms of a legal agreement and the conditions that accompany the permission.

The committee will consider the terms of a section 106 agreement and conditions of the permission when it meets on Tuesday.

Since the committee’s meeting in February, Kettlewell and Starbotton Parish Council has submitted a list of suggested conditions.

A further list has also been sent from a representative of Wharfedale Group Accommodation Providers Association.

Both the parish council and the association have requested conditions limiting the number of beds at the site.

The parish council also wants a condition imposing a limit on the number of permanent residents at the site.

But a report to be considered by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s planning committee says: “This is considered to be both unenforceable and unreasonable – it would require a regular audit of the number of beds on the site and a head count.

Planning conditions must relate to something more tangible than furniture to be enforceable and precise.”

A bid by the council to limit the number of day conference visitors at the site to 90 has been deemed by Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority officers as “unenforceable and unreasonable”.

However the report does agree with a request for a condition requiring approval of a traffic management scheme.

The parish council also wants to restrict occupancy of the existing houses on the site to local occupancy.

However, the report says that the houses provide family accommodation for members of the resident community and are not currently restricted in any way.

It adds: “The applicant has no intention of selling them on the open market. It is considered that there is no policy basis for requiring an occupancy restriction on these properties and it would be unreasonable to do so (being unduly onerous and based on an unfounded assumption that the houses will be sold off).”

The planning committee will be advised to approve the terms of the Section 106 agreement and conditions of permission and approve the scheme when it meets next week.

Plans to extend the centre, which includes some demolition and new build works, were controversial.

An initial application by the Scargill Movement sparked fierce opposition and was withdrawn by the Christian charity last year following objections. Revised plans were later submitted to the authority but still proved controversial.

Critics objected to the scale and details of the development and raised fears about potential light pollution. There were also fears about the impact the development would have on existing accommodation providers in the area.

Objectors had claimed the development would be “unsustainable” in terms of an over-provision of accommodation. Other concerns included issues about access to the site.

But those supporting the application had said the proposals “would only benefit the local community”.

Supporters claimed the Scargill community had been there long before many of the current businesses in the area had developed and had “never been a problem” in terms of traffic.

They said the existing facilities needed updating and concerns about “significant increases” in the number of visitors were “unfounded.”

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