Towns and villages across the district were targeted by developers while Harrogate had no local plan or five-year land supply.
A proposal by Gladman Land to build 75 homes in Killinghall was initially refused planning permission by Harrogate Borough Council.
It said the development “would cause significant harm to the form of the village and to the landscape character, which includes the Nidd Gorge Special Landscape Area and a number of public rights of way, by its manner of extending the built form of the village into open countryside”.
In October 2016, the company appealed against the decision
The Planning Inspectorate dismissed the draft Harrogate local plan as being “of little weight”, saying that it considered the main issues to be whether the council could now demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land.
After hearing arguments from both, he concluded that Harrogate needed to make provision for 3,857 homes over the period 2016–2021.
This was considerably higher than the 390 per year originally calculated by HBC.
‘Suitable location’
The planning inspectorate determined that the site “was a suitable location for the proposed development having regard to national and development plan policies in respect of sustainable development and the delivery of new housing”.
Its report concluded that the failure to evidence a five-year land supply by the council was the planning consideration to which he attached most weight.
Had Harrogate met its statutory planning obligations, there may have been a different outcome to the thousands of homes given approval between 2014 and 2020.
At the time Killinghall conservative councillor Michael Harrison, who was also Cabinet Member for Planning, was reported in the local press as saying Gladman was targeting Killinghall because the council lacked a local plan and five year housing supply.
He said:
“Villagers are right to be upset and feeling that the village is under siege from developers. They are correct.
“It is, in my view, an unacceptable way to get planning permission and it deprives the local residents, and the local council, of the right to have their say on how the district should be developed.”
Killinghall is just one of the areas in the district which feels it is “under siege from development”.
Residents fear the whole fabric of the village has changed as more and more houses are built.
With growing congestion and a lack of local amenities, they worry the formerly small settlement is fast becoming a suburb of Harrogate.
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