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14
Sept
Holiday park expansion planned in High Birstwith
Plans have been submitted to expand a Harrogate district holiday park to meet growing demand for more spacious and private rural holiday accommodation.
Reynard Crag Holiday Park, near High Birstwith, is seeking planning permission to create six additional pitches for static caravans or holiday lodges on grazing land immediately to the south of the existing site.
The established four-acre park currently has planning permission for 48 pitches following a series of previous applications.
Documents submitted with the latest application say the holiday market is moving away from traditional grid-style caravan parks, with customers increasingly looking for larger pitches offering greater space and privacy.
The proposed extension would therefore be developed at a low density, with landscaping incorporated between the holiday homes.
The applicant says recent changes at Reynard Crag to create a lower-density layout have proved popular, prompting the latest expansion proposal.
Supporting documents submitted with the plans state:
Increasingly holiday caravan owners are looking for high quality spacious caravan pitches and the layout of caravan parks are changing from a traditional grid layout design towards lower density developments creating greater privacy.
The applicant also points to a wider trend towards families taking short breaks in inland destinations throughout the year rather than traditional coastal resorts, arguing that Harrogate and the surrounding area is benefiting from the change.
Planning documents say the extension would be screened by the site’s topography and existing mature trees, with further landscaping proposed to soften the appearance of the new units and meet biodiversity net gain requirements.
The applicant says the additional pitches would result in only a small increase in traffic and would use the park’s existing highway access.
Reynard Crag currently employs the equivalent of three full-time local workers, with the owners arguing that continued investment would help safeguard those jobs as well as providing work for local contractors.
They also say visitors contribute to the wider economy by spending money at nearby shops, pubs, restaurants and attractions.
The planning documents conclude that the development would represent a small-scale extension of the existing business and would have no adverse impact on the surrounding landscape.
North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.
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