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10
Jan 2024
Council set to submit Maltkiln development plan next month
North Yorkshire Council is set to submit to the Secretary of State for Housing a 100-page document that outlines how the Maltkiln new settlement could be developed.
Harrogate Borough Council worked on the development plan document (DPD) for several years before handing it over to the unitary authority due to local government reorganisation.
The potential 4,000-home town and two primary schools would be constructed near the villages of Cattal, Whixley, Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton.
As the site is the largest allocation for housing in the Harrogate local plan, the council has a major say in how the scheme is developed. Wetherby-based developer Caddick Group has been chosen to build and sell the homes.
According to a report prepared for councillors ahead of a meeting next week, the draft DPD “sets a clear and ambitious thirty-year vision” for Maltkiln.
It includes details of the site’s boundaries, how the scheme will be developed alongside local transport infrastructure and how homes will be built to combat the effects of climate change.
A site map produced by Harrogate Borough Council.
If, as expected, the document is submitted to the secretary of state in February, it will be scrutinised by a planning inspector who will judge whether the scheme is viable or if changes are needed to be made to the DPD.
This will take place at a public meeting which the public can attend, similar to when a local plan is examined.
But whether the scheme continues in its current form remains to be seen after a key landowner who owns fields around Cattal train station, making up around half of the proposed site, pulled out last year.
The council’s Conservative-run executive agreed last month to consider compulsory purchasing the land as a “last resort” if the landowner doesn’t change their mind.
This led Kevin Bramley from Hunsingore, Walshford with Great Ribston and Cattal Parish Council to compare the housing scheme to HS2, which saw its northern leg scrapped despite millions being spent on compulsory land purchases.
Before the draft DPD is submitted, it will be debated by a council committee on Tuesday. It will then go to the executive and finally full council on February 24.
The report said:
The draft DPD is available to read here.
Read more:
- A million more tonnes of sand and gravel to be mined at quarry near Ripon
- Warning 4,000-home Maltkiln scheme c'could become Yorkshire's HS2'
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