Homes plan halved for ancient fields

RESIDENTS have spoken of their frustration after developers lodged plans to build houses on ancient farm fields on the edge of a North Yorkshire market town despite already having had proposals for the site rejected.

A year after Hambleton District Council refused planning permission for 34 houses on agricultural land beside the Holmes park and Cod Beck river off Stockton Road in Thirsk, and just months after an appeal over the proposal was dismissed by a government inspector, a revised scheme to develop the site has been submitted to the council.

Agents for the developers said that, in rejecting the appeal, the inspector had confirmed the site, which is believed to have been in agricultural use for at least 1,000 years, is “a suitable location for new housing”.

One reason the appeal was dismissed on was heritage grounds, with the inspector considering the benefits of the scheme would not outweigh the less than substantial harm to the Thirsk and Sowerby Conservation Area.

In documents submitted with the latest application, agents said the area to be developed had been reduced so all new buildings would be outside the conservation area, leading to the number of homes on the site being halved to 17 and the southern part of the site becoming “an extensive area of open space”.

Within days of the latest plans being lodged residents highlighted their objections to the council.

One objector, Janet Bramhall, said there would be no schools, employment, shops or medical facilities and very little public transport in the area for people to access.

“Proposals to build on this site have already been refused at least twice. The same reasons for turning down those applications still apply,” she said.