Record turn out for residents meeting discussing the Local Plan

27 June 2017

Last week saw around 400 local residents come together to debate concerns on the draft Harrogate local plan. The event, organised by Harlow and Pannal Ash Residents Association (HAPARA), brought together a number of local resident groups, parish councils and local businesses. Updates were given by Cllr Burnett from Harrogate Council and Cllr Mackenzie North Yorkshire County Council who also answered numerous questions from the audience.

The group has already raised concerns on the number of developments planned for the Harlow, Pannal Ash and Beckwithshaw areas of Harrogate with proposals for over 3000 houses equivalent to a new mini town. It has already vigorously challenged those proposals as part of the original consultation process.

The event clarified that the number of actual houses needed for the district would need to increase by around 20% with over 10,000 new homes now needed to be included in the new local plan. As such, due to changes in the draft plan, the next full consultation was likely to be delayed until 2018.

Concerned on lack of infrastructure investment were also acknowledged in the meeting with specific concerns raised on the lack of capacity of Otley Road that is known to already to be over capacity at peak times.

 

 

A spokesperson for the group said: The huge turnout shows that residents are very concerned on the current draft local plan and the residents groups plan to keep the pressure on Harrogate Council for a more sensible solution. With confirmation that no current workable option to improve the already over capacity Otley Road it is becoming increasingly nonsensical to include over 3000 new houses in this area.

 

See the presentation from the meeting

 

Copies of the presentations from the night and further information is available at www.hapara.org with Facebook and Twitter feeds being used to share views and evidence.

1 Comment

  1. The link for the presentation doesn’t seem to be working. Would be great to see as we are just about to exchange on a house on Howehill Road. Please can you email me it. Thank you.

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