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A step nearer to agreement on district growth
27 JUNE 2007: HARROGATE
Borough Council is a step closer to finding a way of meeting the
Government's requirements that 400 homes a year be built throughout
the district every year for the next fifteen
years. In complying with the Government's
statutory targets, the council's approach is a fine balance between
protecting the environment and meeting the huge need for affordable
housing.
After Harrogate Borough Council's 32-member district
development committee voted in favour of a draft blueprint for
housing development,
the Cabinet approved the draft planning strategy, which will
form a major part of the District's Local Development Framework
(LDF), setting out proposals for house building through to
2023.
This core strategy will now go for approval to a full council
meeting on
4 July, before being sent to a Government inspector, who will
decide next year whether to accept it as it is, to make amendments
before acceptance, or to reject as unsound.
There will also be further public consultation in September.
Central Government has demanded that the council provides
sufficient land to build 6000 homes throughout the district over
the next fifteen years. Sixty-two per cent
(3,720) of those homes are planned for the Harrogate and
Knaresborough urban area. Whilst the core
strategy does not name precise locations for these houses, it does
identify two broad areas of growth in the urban area: west of
Harrogate, and east of Knaresborough.
Cabinet Member for Planning and Transport, Councillor Don
Mackenzie, said: "We have very difficult decisions to make over the
next few weeks and months. Most of us would
prefer not to have to build 400 houses a year for the next fifteen
years. In the face of necessity, we are intent
upon choosing the most suitable locations for growth, and ensuring
that the infrastructure roads and other transport links, schools,
doctors and dentists, retail outlets, post offices keeps pace with
the growth."
The other areas around Harrogate and Knaresborough are
considered unsuited to major expansion of housing, on account of
various factors, including land use constraints (e.g. green belt),
road capacity, transport links and the environment.
Councillor Mackenzie continued: "It is
unfortunate that Government demands will force us to identify in
the LDF greenfield land for development. We
cannot rely on brownfield windfall sites which are, by their very
nature, uncertain, although the more of those that we find early on
in the 15-year plan, the further back we can push the date of
having to use greenfield land".
The core strategy also recognises the need to provide
affordable homes for local people and, on developments of two or
more dwellings, will allow the council to negotiate for half of the
total to be provided as affordable housing
on-site. Single dwelling developers will be
required to make a financial contribution to secure an element of
affordable housing off-site. There will also be
special arrangements to provide affordable housing on small rural
sites.
Councillor. Don Mackenzie added: "Throughout the discussions
on the core strategy, we have been mindful of the need to provide
homes, which local people will be able to
afford. We know that the Harrogate district is
one of the most expensive places in the country in which to buy a
house. The council wishes to ensure that about 40 per cent of the
new homes to be built here will be within the financial reach of
local people looking for a home." ENDS
FURTHER INFORMATION: Councillor Don
Mackenzie is available for comment on 01423
872211. Further technical information is
available from Mr Dave Allenby, Chief Planner (Forward Planning)
556576