Report recommends refusal for 2,750-home scheme

Plans for a new community, including 2,750 homes and a new rail station, on a disused golf course in North Yorkshire are recommended for refusal at a meeting next week (6 October 2020). However, the developer behind the project has called for a decision to be deferred until the outcome of a review into the preferred location for a new settlement is known.The 430-acre site near Knaresborough was acquired in 2016 by Flaxby Park Ltd, owned by Stagecoach co-founder Ann Gloag and regeneration experts Chris Musgrave and Trevor Cartner.A planning application was submitted in 2017 for a scheme comprising 2,750 homes, a new village centre plus two primary schools and sports facilities.There plans also include the creation of a new park and ride railway station through the re-opening of the former Goldsborough station.More than 50 per cent of the site would consist of green open space.The application is set to be considered by Harrogate Borough Council’s Planning Committee on 6 October. However, a planning officer’s report prepared for the meeting recommends that permission is refused.The report said the proposed development represented a “major urban incursion into open countryside” on a site that “lies outside of the broad location identified within the Local Plan within which a new settlement should be developed”.It also cited the potential impact on listed buildings in the area, including the grade I-listed Allerton Park and the grade II*-listed Temple of Victory.The council has received 79 letters objection and 161 of support for the plans.