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Mar 2021

Environment

Plans for 36 homes in Goldsborough sent back to drawing board

Published: 30 Mar 2021, 17:46 BST

Updated: 30 Mar 2021, 17:46 BST

by John Plummer

Harrogate Borough Council's planning committee has sent plans for 36 homes in Goldsborough, near Knaresborough, back to the drawing board. Councillors said the plans needed a rethink.

Plans for 36 homes in Goldsborough sent back to drawing board. Photo: Google

Developers behind plans to build 36 homes in a Harrogate district village have been sent back to the drawing board by councillors.

Stonebridge Homes proposed the homes for land near Goldsborough’s cricket club and primary school.

The plans were initially refused by Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee in 2018 and then granted outline permission a year later.

At a meeting today, the developers were seeking a final stamp of approval for the Station Road scheme but were turned down by councillors concerned over the number and layout of the homes.

Cllr Zoe Metcalfe also said more needed to be done to reduce the impact on nearby homes and the village’s conservation area.

She said:

“This is a really important area that we need to look after and I do not think the developers are being respectful at all.

“They have got outline permission so these houses are going to happen but I would like to see less and a better layout.”

Cllr Andrew Paraskos, a Conservative who represents Spofforth with Lower Wharfedale, added:

“I really do think with these smaller sites on the edges of villages and towns that we should be pushing for the best that we can get.

“This development will be the first thing you are going to see entering this village – and you will probably see it from the A59 too – so why not make it something that we are really proud of? We should be going for designs that are exemplary.”

One resident, Noel Evans, spoke in objection to the plans today saying the 36 homes were “not needed nor wanted by anyone in the village” and called for the number to be reduced to 12.

Mr Evans said.

“This is the most intense development ever considered in Goldsborough.

“Its urban density will be totally out of keeping with the Goldsborough conservation area which it borders directly. If houses must be built here, reducing the number to one third of the planned numbers would solve all of these problems.”

The plans included a mix of one to five-bedroom properties, with 14 classed as affordable.

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Becky Lomas, an agent for the developers, told today’s meeting that the layout of the homes and landscaping had been “carefully” designed to minimise the impact on residents living on Station Road.

She said the proposals “do not give rise to any overbearing, overshadowing or overlooking harms” to the area, however, this did not ring true with councillors who have asked for a rethink on how the homes are set out.

Cllr Pat Marsh, a Liberal Democrat who represents Harrogate Hookstone, said the developers should make sure the proposals are “absolutely right” for the area before asking for planning permission again.

She said:

“At the moment I feel this is not right so taking it back and having those discussions with both residents and local members is the most sensible way forward.”

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Plans for 36 homes in Goldsborough sent back to drawing board

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