Housing Development Proposed for Tockwith - 158 New Houses.
Harrogate Borough Council(HBC) recently issued details of their Site Allocations (Home and Jobs) Preferred Options Consultation document to all households in Tockwith. The document outlines a proposal to build 158 houses at two sites in the village.
This is not a planning application at this stage however the council is asking for feedback in terms of objections or support from all interested parties by 29th February 2008.
Details of the Proposal can be found using the link below.
Many residents accept that some new housing is unavoidable in the village but also feel that the proposed location and number of houses would be unacceptable. From conversations with residents some of the key objections appear to be that:
Houses should not be built on greenfield sites while brownfield sites are available next to the village.
Most of Tockwith is in a conservation area and the main street is already heavily congested due to parked cars and volumes of traffic. Further development outside the conservation area would have a negative impact on the amenity of the conservation area.
The location of Tockwith means that most adults require a car, most will also have long commutes into Leeds, Harrogate and York which makes the location unsuitable and would lead to more congestion and carbon emissions across a wide area.
The current infrastructure would not cope; new sewers would be required, the school would be unllikely to have adequate capacity, the road network, particularly on Southfield Lane would need major improvements, the junctions with the B1224 would become even more congested.
This would be the largest proposed development in a village and is out of proportion to the size of the village, it would make integration of new residents difficult and result in "a village within a village".
The Parish Council have already proposed sites for the building of new houses in the village but these appear to have been ignored by HBC.
Tockwith Residents Association will object to these proposals and wish to encourage all residents to feed back their views to HBC, regardless of whether these are in support of, or against, the proposals.