Sites revealed for Dales housing

Nearly 40 sites have been identified across the Dales where it is hoped 240 new homes will be built – 120 of them affordable accommodation which rural experts say is crucial to the economic future of the national park.

The sites, which were submitted by local landowners last year after the national park authority appealed for people to come forward with suitable places where new houses could be built, appear in a report due before members of the authority on March 30.

They include sites in Grassington, Hawes, Reeth, Bainbridge, Dent, Long Preston, Embsay, Malham and Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

A member of the Yorkshire Dales Planning Authority, Coun John Blackie, said: "There is an extreme need for affordable housing for local needs in the Dales and I am delighted to see new attempts to solve it.

"People born and bred here are being pushed out of their own communities by high house prices and the outlook for young people here is very bleak.

"We need action on this and this is a much-needed step in the right direction if we are to stop the rot and the relentless drift away from our deeply rural areas by young families."

In 2005 the park authority introduced a ban on new homes in the Dales being sold to outsiders, so local people could afford accommodation in their own areas.

But earlier this month the Yorkshire Post revealed alarming new figures exposing the critical lack of affordable accommodation in the Dales along with the fact that it had sparked a rural exodus among younger generations which have a serious impact on business and education throughout the area.

Up to half of all houses in vast swathes of the Yorkshire Dales are now holiday homes, despite all efforts to increase affordable accommodation in the area.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority says 48 per cent of all houses in Arkengarthdale are now holiday homes, while about two thirds of the local population are elderly.

Swaledale and Wensleydale are also said to be particularly suffering while villages like Gunnerside and Langthwaite are empty outside of tourist season.

The strategic planning officer for the national park authority, Peter Stockton, said: "During consultation on housing policy in 2007, a public consensus emerged that the authority should try to use the planning system more proactively to benefit local households that need affordable accommodation.

"We responded with a call for new housing sites amongst landowners in the national park.

"We had a good response with 143 options submitted.

"These have now been whittled down to 38 potential sites which will now be presented to members on Tuesday.

"Up until now new housing has only been permitted on infill sites, small gaps and through barn conversion opportunities inside towns and villages.

"The intention now is to investigate whether a more planned approach of allocating small sites in suitable locations can be proactively allocated in a new plan.

"We hope in the future to have a range of sites across the national park in service towns and villages that will go some way to supplying more affordable housing in the Dales."

The sites are part of the draft Yorkshire Dales Housing Development Plan 2010 to 2026.

Following the meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority on March 30, the sites will go to public consultation in April.