Rebuiding plan raises fears for heritage landscape

FEARS HAVE been raised that building work on a property neighbouring one of Yorkshire’s country estates will harm the famous landscape.

Lofthouse Lodge, a partly demolished house dating from the 1960s, lies on green belt land next to the Grade II listed entrance gate to the Harewood House estate, near Leeds.

A Leeds City Council plans panel will this week consider an application to rebuild and extend the house on Harrogate Road.

A report to the panel ahead of its meeting on Thursday says the house has already been subject to a series of planning applications, and the owner was also made to obtain a “certificate of lawfulness” after previous breaches. Among those expressing concerns are Harewood Parish Council and a ward councillor, Rachael Procter.

The report says: “The building is set at the entrance of the Harewood Estate and within the registered park and gardens which is an important historic heritage asset. The parish council has raised concern that the proposal will harm the character of the area.”

Among the changes being sought is the introduction of new pillars that will match those on the entrance to the Harewood estate. The report admits that the proposed building, if approved, would be “larger than the one it replaces and therefore it represents inappropriate development in the green belt”. But it also warns that pre-existing permitted development rights – planning conditions granted by Parliament rather than councils – “clearly outweigh the potential harm to the green belt”.

Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, Harewood House was built between 1759 and 1771 for wealthy plantation owner Edwin Lascelles, the first Baron Harewood.