We need to raise £80,000 to fight the plan to build 3000 houses on green field sites around Cattal, Whixley, Kirk Hammerton and Green Hammerton

www.kghg.co.uk

Harrogate Borough Council wants to build a new town of 3000 houses on open agricultural land near the villages of Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton, Whixley and Cattal. The proposal is in the Council’s draft local plan which will soon be considered by an independent central government-appointed Planning Inspector.

A great many people object to this site. Most people recognise the need for new housing, particularly affordable housing, but think this is the wrong location and they think that the way the location was chosen and the evidence to support that choice is flawed and weak. It will destroy forever a large swathe of open countryside.

This new settlement does not represent sustainable development - which is at the heart of national planning policy - and also harms existing historic communities. And there are real questions over its deliverability.

What makes the decision even stranger is that there is a more suitable location at Flaxby Park which is closer to the main centres of the district’s population. It is a redundant golf course with good transport links. A new business park with the scope to offer many hundreds of jobs has recently been approved on land adjacent to this site. Flaxby Park is in a “ready to go” condition with land in control of one developer and therefore will be able to deliver housing quicker, cheaper and in a more sustainable manner than near Green Hammerton.

Harrogate Borough Council is determined to drive through this unsustainable, unsound plan. But we are determined to fight it. We have instructed a professional planning consultant to act for us and are engaged with expert witnesses in the fields of environment, transport and other areas to challenge the soundness and legality of the plan at the forthcoming Examination in Public.

Instructing professionals and undertaking the research to support them is expensive and we need to raise £80,000 to fund this campaign. Please support us and help prevent Harrogate Borough Council from, literally, bulldozing their way over our historic communities and beautiful landscape that will be lost forever.