Retirement homes plan would offer 'little benefit' to Yorkshire village

The homes would be built on Station Road by the A59 junction in Kirk Hammerton and the developer SageHaus Living said in documents they would help meet a “significant demand” for this type of accommodation in the area.

The developer has argued that around Kirk Hammerton, which is between Harrogate and York, there is no specialist provision for the elderly but there are 4,916 people living over the age of 65 — a number which it expects to increase.

The scheme is being designed as a carbon neutral development and will include solar panels on the roof, heat pumps as well as efficient lighting. The one, two and three-bedroom bungalows will be built in a factory and transported to the site, reducing emissions created during the traditional construction process.

Selby & Ainsty’s planning committee will meet in Selby next Wednesday (Jan 10) to consider the application. The plans received six objections from villagers, with one person stating that the scheme does not fit the semi-rural nature of the area.

Kirk Hammerton Parish Council also objected and said the homes would offer “little benefit” to the village.

In a council report that has been published online ahead of next week’s planning committee, officer Kate Broadbank raised concerns about the location of the scheme, its design, impact on the landscape and the potential for flooding.

The report said: “The scale, form and layout of the development is not characteristic of the settlement pattern of Kirk Hammerton or the local area and will have an adverse impact upon the local and wider landscape character, local distinctiveness and adverse visual effects.

“The proposed development will lead to a loss of openness, loss of countryside and loss of connection with the wider countryside as a result of the combination of the development, its infrastructure and landscape mitigation contrary to Local Plan Policy NE4.”

In November, an unrelated application was submitted for 24 retirement flats next to the Geoffrey Benson & Son furniture store, which is also in Kirk Hammerton.