More details revealed as two extra sites deleted from Harrogate's local plan

The crucial blueprint which will dictate where thousands of homes and businesses in Harrogate will be developed over the next two decades is set to be opened to public consultation this Friday.
H17, where a care home is recommended for redevelopment into 11 dwellings, is one of the sites that has been rejected.H17, where a care home is recommended for redevelopment into 11 dwellings, is one of the sites that has been rejected.
H17, where a care home is recommended for redevelopment into 11 dwellings, is one of the sites that has been rejected.

Members of the public will have an opportunity to voice their thoughts on Harrogate's draft local plan when a six-week consultation begins on July 26.

The latest version of the plan has seen two additional sites cut from the blueprint, making it 13 in total that Government Inspector Richard Schofield has requested be deleted.

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The most recent developments slashed include site H17 - a proposal to redevelop Heath Lodge Care Home on Pannal Ash Road into 11 dwellings.

Mr Schofield, who is tasked with making sure the plan is 'sound', also rejected plans to develop a field on the western edge of Green Hammerton into a neighbourhood consisting of up to 54 homes.

Government inspector tells Harrogate council to scrap 11 housing sites from its proposed Local PlanThe latest changes have also seen the boundaries of a huge swathe of field south of Almsford Bridge, Pannal, which had been slated for 93,000 square metres of employment land, shrunk.

It's the most significant development in the plan made public by the Government Inspector since his first major round of feedback in March, which saw 11 sites - containing more than 1,000 proposed homes- slashed from the plan.

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The inspector also requested the council carry out additional studies into the broad locations where a new village could be built.

Harrogate's final draft local plan completion date revealedThe council has previously supported land near Green Hammerton for the development, but the proposal has met fierce opposition from developers looking to build a new community on an unused golf park at Flaxby.

While details of the additional work are not yet known, the council has now acknowledged that Flaxby Park has rail links in the form of the currently non-operational Goldsborough Railway Station.

Previously, the council had only acknowledged the Green Hammerton site's links to a railway, in the form of the nearby Cattal station.

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Harrogate Local plan: Inspector poses questions on district's historic site protectionThe consultation – which runs through to 6 September – only covers the modifications that have been made to the plan, not the entire plan itself.

Feedback on the modifications will be considered by the planning inspector before he makes his final recommendations in the autumn.

Councillor Rebecca Burnett, cabinet member for planning, said: “The work to deliver our local plan is in the closing stages.

“We have carefully considered the inspector’s feedback as a result of the public examination which happened earlier this year.

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“Changes have been made to the plan document and we’ve carried out the additional sustainability work we were asked to do.

“This will help us make the right decision in terms of a potential new settlement.

“I encourage everyone to take part in this latest consultation phase so they can let us know what they think about the modifications we’ve made to the plan.”

The consultation is the culmination of months of work on the housing blueprint, which is set to dictate where thousands of the region's homes and businesses will be built over the next two decades.

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It comes five years after an initial draft plan submitted by the council in 2014 was withdrawn later that year on the urging of the Planning Inspectorate, who said the plan didn't include enough housing.

A revised version was submitted to the Government Inspectorate last year, with public hearings held across January and February this year.

Following the hearings, Mr Schofield advised that 11 sites - containing more than 1,000 proposed homes - be deleted from the blueprint, in his first round of feedback on the plan.

The consultation will be available online at http://consult.harrogate.gov.uk from Friday 26 July.

The thirteen sites recommended for deletion include:

H17 – Heath Lodge Care Home, Harrogate

GH9 – Land west of B6265 and north of A59, Green Hammerton

B21 – Land at Aldborough Gate, Boroughbridge

M13 – Land at Thorpe Road, Masham

P1 – Land south of Ashfield Court, Pateley Bridge

P5 – Grassfield Court, Pateley Bridge

P10 - Grassfield House, Pateley Bridge

DB5 - Land to the west of Dacre Banks

DR14 – Land at Shepcote Lane, Darley

HM9 – Land to the north of Meadow Close, Hampsthwaite

PN17 – Land adjoining Spring Lane, Pannal

PN19 – Land to the west of Leeds Road, Pannal

SB1 – Clough House Farm, Summerbridge

The revised boundary site is PN18 in Pannal.

Lachlan Leeming, Local Democracy Reporter