Further applications for greenfield developments in Harrogate

Harrogate Borough Council received confirmation last week of a planning application to build 124 homes in a field at the junction of Otley Road and Crag Lane.

This brings to four the number of planning proposals, which have been submitted for large-scale housing in countryside to the west of Harrogate:

Skipton Road – 210 homes

Penny Pot Lane – 600 homes

Crag Lane – 124 homes

Cardale Park –450 homes

Total – 1384 homes

The ward councillor for Harlow Moor, which includes Crag Lane, Don Mackenzie stated: Once again, we are seeing a developer jumping the gun with an application before the district’s Local Plan has been finalised. I am very critical of the unseemly rush to create unsustainable housing estates in an area of the town, which already suffers from high levels of congestion on roads like Skipton Road and Otley Road. They should be more patient and let the planning inspector carry out his public examination of the council’s housing proposals, taking account of the very large number of responses from our residents.

Rossett campaigner, Rebecca Burnett, added: Harrogate Borough Council’s Core Strategy, its planning blueprint for the next 15 years, calls for 187 houses to be built across the town each year. These four planning applications, if approved, would amount to well over seven years’ worth of housing, without even considering the many other planning permissions, which inevitably come forward week in, week out. We will continue to represent local residents who share our concerns about over-development.

Don added: We should remember that the Core Strategy commits the authority to building on brownfield sites first. This is something that the developers of these greenfield sites should bear in mind.