Calls for council to abandon plan to extend Leeming Bar industrial estate onto farmland

Within days of Leeming Bar Action Group launching a petition pressing Hambleton District Council to drop an ambition to extend “employment land” at the business park, almost 500 people have signed it, amid concerns over “creeping urbanisation” between Bedale and Northallerton.

The petition comes ahead of a government inspector investigating the council’s ambition as part of its Local Plan development blueprint for the district.

The action group’s members said they had been angered by the authority’s chief executive using emergency Coronavirus powers to approve negotiations with eight landowners to buy the site.

The action group had urged the authority, which has allocated £127,000 to progress feasibility and viability work, not to spend additional taxpayers’ money on developing its plan until after the Planning Inspectorate completes its examination of the Local Plan.

While the council’s leader Councillor Mark Robson has described the expansion of the industrial estate as “a key priority” in the Local Plan to boost the area’s local economy, in submissions to the government inspector numerous residents have condemned the proposed move.

As calls continue for the council to help tackle the number of empty shop premises in nearby Northallerton, residents Ann and Brian Thomas objected to the Leeming Bar plan saying high streets needed bringing “back to life”.

They wrote: “More money should be put towards attracting small businesses back into the High Street. Reduce the business rates not tempt business to these outer business parks. Rates are far too high, parking charges are killing the High Street.”

Another resident, Neil Reed, said developing 70 acres would see nearby residential areas “swamped by the surrounding industry”.

A spokeswoman for the action group said the inspector’s initial response to the plan had called into question both the location and the quantity of land which the council “wants to turn into factories, the methodologies used to choose it, and the devastating impact this could have on local residents”.

If signatures on the change.org petition rise to more than 870, the authority’s policy states it will be debated at a meeting at which all councillors can attend and the petition organiser would be given five minutes to present the petition.

Responding to the claims on the petition, a council spokesperson said: “Hambleton District Council has submitted a draft Local Plan for examination by independent Planning Inspectors who will soon be arranging public hearings which can be attended by the local community.

“In the meantime, the council is required to continue to prepare and maintain up to date evidence around the draft allocation sites such as Leeming Bar. The report approved by the chief executive enables the council to approach local businesses and landowners to test the market and demonstrate that this is a viable and deliverable site for future employment development.

“The findings will then be reported to cabinet and used to inform the Local Plan process at the hearings. The planning inspectors will then advise whether the draft allocation is sound.”

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