There’s always plenty of debate about how best to manage the development of Harrogate, but no-one – according to the Stray Ferret’s archive – has ever suggested building a settlement the size of Boroughbridge, Masham and the whole of Nidderdale on the edge of our town. 

And yet that’s exactly what is happening. The 'western arc' – a patchwork of huge development sites forming a near-contiguous band stretching from RHS Harlow Carr round to Yew Tree Lane – is scheduled to bring about 4,000 new homes to the town. 

Multiply that figure by the UK’s average household size of 2.4 and you get 9,600 people – not far shy of 9,760, which is the combined population of those places. 

Of course, there’s a housing crisis, so sites need to be developed as quickly as possible to accommodate all the people who need somewhere to live. But the scale of the new development is alarming many residents along Harrogate’s western fringe, who fear the town simply cannot cope. 

Rene Dziabas is one of them. As chair of Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents’ Association (Hapara) he knows very well just how big the developers are thinking, and worries that the town’s road system isn’t up to the job. He is blunt in his assessment: 

Cathy Burrell, who chairs Pannal and Burn Bridge Parish Council, is equally damning. She told the Stray Ferret: 

In fact, they already are. The West Harrogate Parameters Plan, which was drawn up two years ago by Harrogate Borough Council and developers, envisioned around 2,000 homes, as well as two new primary schools and employment land. 

But developers’ ambitions have grown since then, and so has the house-count. According to Mr Dziabas, the huge block of land that planners call H45, which stretches south of Otley Road from the edge of Harrogate halfway to Beckwithshaw, was supposed to provide 450 houses, but will actually give 560. Just over the road, the even bigger H49 was supposed to have 776 homes, but now a yield of 900 to 1,000 looks more likely. This pattern is repeated around many of the sites scheduled for development, and it will all have an impact on the town’s infrastructure, both large and small.

Whinney Lane 

Cathy Burrell said: 

Cllr John Mann, a Conservative who represents Oatlands and Pannal on North Yorkshire Council, was one of the first to point out that all the new development amounted to a “de facto new town”. He said: 

Detail needed

Local residents’ concerns may be focused on the road system, but other parts of the infrastructure are also giving them plenty to talk about. 

Cathy Burrell said: 

All these questions clearly need answers, and indeed the West Harrogate Parameters Plan was supposed to detail all the developments’ 'associated infrastructure requirements'. 

But Mr Dziabas says the document did little to allay residents’ worries. He said: 

Residents are hoping that some of the answers they’re looking for will be found in a piece of work called the cumulative transport assessment, which developers say they expect to publish in March. This is supposed to include new road layouts and proposals for active travel – cycle paths and the like – but again, Mr Dziabas is sceptical. He said: 

Not listening

The Stray Ferret approached Cllr Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, for comment.

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