Plans for Housing on Police Training Centre Set for Approval

Updated plans to redevelop the site of a former police training centre in Harrogate to create up to 200 new homes look set to get the green light next week (11 May 2021).Homes England, supported by Lichfields, submitted an application to Harrogate Borough Council last year for residential development on the site of the former Police Training College on Yew Tree Lane.The site closed in 2011 and plans have been in the works to convert the space into housing since 2014. It is earmarked for housing in the council’s adopted Local Plan.Full planning permission is sought for the conversion of North Lodge, Headmasters House, Kensington House and the library at the training centre to create 16 homes, and the construction of 184 new properties. Affordable housing would make up 30 per cent of the scheme.The plans also include new open space, ecological enhancements, roads, and pedestrian and cycle facilities.The application will go before the council’s Planning Committee on 11 May and is recommended for approval, subject to conditions and the signing of a legal agreement, in an officer’s report prepared the the meeting.Planning permission was previously granted in October 2018 for a development 161 homes through the conversion of the existing building and construction of new units.Homes England took ownership of the site in early 2019 to bring forward housing development, with the existing buildings demolished.Following a review of the region’s housing market, revised plans were developed. The new scheme includes the removal of the playing pitch, a reduction in the area of the ‘Central Parkland’ and an increase in the number of homes to up to 200.