Dire warning as senior Harrogate councillor calls for halt to new housing sites on west side of town

John Mann, a Conservative member of North Yorkshire Council, says there must be a moratorium on the allocation of new housing sites in that area because it has already been allocated “more than its fair share of new housing sites under the existing Local Plan”.

The councillor for the Oatlands & Pannal division has written to the North Yorkshire Council Executive to say he fears appalling traffic congestion under council plans to replace the existing Local Plan that was inherited from the former borough councils in the county.

“Whinney Lane, Green Lane, Yew Tree Lane, Hill Foot Lane and Burn Bridge Road are already near to full capacity, especially at rush hour, said Coun Mann.

"These are country lanes which should not be asked to take further traffic from new housing allocations in a new Local Plan.

“Under our existing Local Plan, the Council allocated housing sites in the west of Harrogate for between 3,500 to 4,000 dwellings and these are either currently being constructed or awaiting planning permission.

"This is in a part of Harrogate with an acknowledged weak infrastructure and this number of new houses means that the west of Harrogate could, ultimately, be absorbing over 6,000 additional cars, 2,500 of which would be on the road in the peak hour.”

To add to growing concern over the impact of housing developments in Harrogate, the Government has announced new housing targets for all councils.

The Government is proposing setting a target of 4,232 dwellings per annum for the county of North Yorkshire.

This is a significant increase on North Yorkshire’s previous target of 2,315 dwellings set out in the existing Local Plan.

A new target of 4,232 dwellings will mean that many more allocations of housing sites will be needed across the county.

Coun Man also claims that there is already “over provision” of new housing in Harrogate, as it is.

He said: "The existing Local Plan stipulated the sites for housing allocations in the county but, in my view, it provided for too many houses for the former Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) area compared to the assessed housing need.

"While the objectively assessed housing need for the HBC area was 13,377 dwellings, the existing Local Plan provides for 16,077 dwellings – or 20% more – over the period up to 2035.

”The western side of Harrogate is expected to absorb nearly a quarter of it, i.e. nearly 4,000 houses.

"It should be noted that so far to date, only 700 of this total have been built.

“This over-provision of 20% was justified at the time by the former Harrogate Borough Council on the grounds that some sites might fail to be delivered fully.

"As it has turned out, all of the sites in the west of Harrogate have come forward, and developers have consistently applied for more dwellings than the yields indicated in the Local Plan.

"On the west of Harrogate this amounts to an average creep of 14.2%.”

When the “lack of road infrastructure in the area” is also taken into account, Coun Mann concludes that there should be a moratorium on further new housing sites in the west of Harrogate in the county’s new Local Plan.