Knox Lane - Planning Application & Appeal

(Photo by Jill Harrison)

The Civic Society has submitted three letters relating to the Knox Lane Housing development H2.
These are reproduced below in reverse chronological order:

22 July 2024
The Planning Inspector,
Civic Centre,
St. Lukes Avenue,
Harrogate HG1 2AE

Dear Sir,
Planning Appeal APP/U2750/W/24/3341645 Knox Lane Harrogate

This note is written to assist a third party representation and will be passed to you by them.
The Civic Society is not making a request to appear at the inquiry.

However, we made written representations in our letters of 11th June 2020 (on the original application for 73 dwellings) and our letter of 22nd December 2021 (on the revised plans for 53 dwellings).

We offer some brief thoughts on what can be considered Knox Hamlet (or village). Often on maps the annotation KNOX is placed to the north of Oak Beck. However, we believe that Knox historically and logically includes (at least) land north and south of Knox lane as far east as Bachelor Gardens on the north side and as far as St. Johns Grove on the west side.

Between Knox Mill Lane and Bachelor Gardens stands an historic row of dwellings on the north side of Knox Lane and historically here stood Knox House Farm and Knox Road at the junction of Knox Lane and Bachelor Gardens. The area is now covered by modern development – Old Barber/Old trough way etc. etc. The above appeal site under discussion would be adjacent to this row of historic dwellings.

Further south there was Knox Farm just north of St. John’s Grove. The area is now covered by new roads, many with the word Knox in their names. The two areas of Knox, north and south of Oak Beck are historically connected. The connections are by the ford over the beck (now closed off) and the ancient Spruisty Bridge, the pack horse bridge dating from the 17th century.

For these reasons we believe that Knox should be considered as one entity – north and south of Oak Beck.
Please continue to take our two previous letters into account.

Yours faithfully,
Henry Pankhurst
On behalf of Harrogate Civic Society


Second Letter: 22 December 2021
Place-shaping & Economic Growth,
For the attention of Andy Hough,
Harrogate Borough Council,
P.O. Box 787,
Harrogate

Dear Mr. Hough,
Planning Application 20/01333/FULMAJ 6.79.9616.E FULMAJ - Land at Knox Lane (Housing Site H2), Harrogate

Thank you for your consultation on the above application which is now for 53 dwellings rather than the original 73 dwellings.

We see that the area proposed to be developed with housing is considerably reduced and now seems to conform to the area which is Site H2 in the Local Plan. The indicative yield being 52 dwellings, the amended plan is now very closely aligned in this respect. The land to the north, now shown without buildings, is more appropriate treatment of the Special Landscape Area.

These amendments, despite their significance in the reduced number of dwellings and the reduced size of the built area, do not make the proposal acceptable. In our letter of representation dated 11th June 2020, we listed seven reasons for refusal. All of these still apply to the amended (smaller) built area. Some provement applies in respect of only one reason – reason (G) in that there is less encroachment into the countryside which is designated Special Landscape Area.

Please continue to take into account all the points and reasons for refusal contained in our letter of 11th June 2020. In our opinion, site H2 should never have been included as a housing site in the District Local Plan. Historically the opinion of the Council was also that it was unsuitable.

Thank you again for your consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Henry Pankhurst
On behalf of Harrogate Civic Society


Initial Letter: 11th June 2020
Place-shaping & Economic Growth,
For the attention of Andy Hough,
Harrogate Borough Council,
P.O. Box 787,
Harrogate

Dear Sir,

Planning Application 20/01333/FULMAJ -
Housing Site H2 (plus additional land) off Knox Lane, Harrogate

The extended H2 site is an unacceptable location for housing, whether for the proposed 73 dwellings, or fewer.

PLANNING POLICY HISTORY

The site was evaluated in the Harrogate District LDF Urban Areas Consultation – Assessment of Site Options Volume 1: Harrogate Town (North East) dated September 2011. The site seemed identical to the application site which is given a gross area of 3.4 ha. But the 2011 evaluation numbered the site H100 with a gross area of 3.16 ha and a capacity of 83 dwellings.

The list of facilities and their accessibility found in every instance that all were much further than the required proximity to the site.

The Special Landscape Area & Tree Preservation Orders was noted as constraints.

Regarding Conservation and Design, Ecology and Landscape, all three items were awarded a red dot, denoting an Adverse Impact or High Adverse Impacts.

There were traffic concerns at the junctions between Knox Avenue and Bilton Lane.

We note also that in the similar document of evaluation, Preferred Options Consultation of November 2007, the conclusion was that ‘Development (of Site H100) would represent unacceptable urban extension of the town into the countryside’.

The Draft Local Plan of October 2016 did not include any part of site H2 or H100.

The Draft Local Plan Additional Sites Consultation of July/August 2017 did however bring Site H2 in as a possible allocation which looked identical to H100. It was given a gross site area of 3.15 ha and a potential yield of 70 dwellings. (H100 in 2011 had been given a gross site area of 3.16 ha and a capacity of 83 dwellings).

In the Publication Draft Local Plan dated January 2018, Site H2 was allocated in a reduced version at a gross area of 1.966 ha and a potential of 52 dwellings.

The Schedule of Main Modifications of July 2019 carried site H2 forward as in the Publication Draft, with the Requirements rewritten but with substantially the same effect.

The Harrogate District Local Plan was adopted in March 2020 including housing allocation site H2 as modified.

It is of great concern that this site off Knox Lane, whether it be in its smaller or larger version, was brought forward in the Additional Sites Consultation of 2017. The substantial increase in allocations was clearly out of scale with requirements. The Local Plan Inspector was content to delete a number of sites because he was confident that the Council had allocated more than enough land to fulfil requirements. For instance, Site PN17, Land Adjoining Spring Lane Pannal. This site was included in the Additional Sites document of 2017 and carried forward to the Consultation Draft Local Plan of 2018. Two proposals had been put forward for this site, Application 17/05136/FULMAJ for 52 dwellings which was withdrawn, and Application 18/04288/OUTMAJ for 48 dwellings. Despite the Site being thought suitable for inclusion as a housing allocation in the Publication Draft Local Plan of 2018, the outline application was refused on 1st April 2020 for many reasons. These included location and landscape reasons.

Attention is drawn to the fact that a site that was presumably originally thought suitable for housing and is allocated, can in fact be found wanting in respect of some basic considerations, hence the refusal of consent.

Conversely site H2 (H100) is found seriously wanting in many basic considerations as noted above but later those considerations seem to miraculously evaporate and Harrogate Borough Council makes it a housing allocation in the Additional Sites Consultation with the larger part of it surviving through to the Adopted Local Plan.

We can only agree that the many reasons for rejection that applied until 2016/17 still apply as summarised below.

OBJECTIONS TO THE DEVELOPMENT

We can set down many of the objections to development of site H2 (previously Site H100) in the words of the Harrogate District Sites & Policies DPD – Urban Areas Consultation Assessment of Site Options of September 2011. Quotations are taken from Volume 1: Harrogate Town (North East) in the section entitled Other Site Options – Harrogate NE (as opposed to Preferred options Sites).

KEY CONSTRAINTS – Conservation of the Countryside in particular the Special Landscape Area (SLA).

DESIGNATIONS - SLA and Tree Preservation Order.

ACCESSIBILITY

Walking distances to five particular facilities are all greater than the accessibility requirement – Bus Stop, Primary School, Major Area of Employment, GP Surgery and nearest supermarket or local shopping centre.

COMMENTS FROM HERITAGE & DESIGN

HBC – Conservation & Design Development of this site would adversely impact on the historic environment and/or local character.

HBC - Ecology High adverse effects on designated sites and/or priority habitats and species.

HBC - Landscape High adverse effect – only appropriate if other factors are strongly in favour.

TRAFFIC ISSUES

Access off Knox Lane. There are concerns as to the impact that the development would have at the junctions between Knox Avenue and Bilton Lane.

We believe that these points quoted from the HBC Document still hold good and we happily concur with them. Can much or indeed anything have changed since, to make H2 acceptable as a housing site on this elevated land in the SLA?

FURTHER POINTS

The historic hamlet of Knox, although not a conservation area, could be considered a non-designated heritage asset. It includes the listed Spruisty Bridge - an ancient pack-horse bridge and the historic ford (no longer in use). Knox should not coalesce with the modern suburb to the east which includes Old trough Way, Mill Gate, Over Nidd etc. etc. Knox Lane, where access to the proposed housing site would be is very much a highly attractive country lane at this point leading to the first cottages of Knox on the east side and to Oak Beck. This section of Knox Lane is not adequate as a housing estate road which is what its destiny would be. No attempt should be made to widen the carriageway or add a footway which would destroy the approach to Knox. Such urbanisation would also have an adverse impact on the recreational nature of the area around Spruisty Bridge.

As noted above, the Council have already had concerns regarding the impact of additional traffic from this location on the Knox Avenue and Bilton Lane junctions. We would add that the Knox Lane/Crab Lane junctions are also of concern. Crab Lane, which eastbound traffic would certainly try to use, is entirely unsuitable to cope with additional traffic. However well designed an access to Site H2 may be, the increase in usage of Knox Lane would call for an ‘upgrade’ at this point, thus unacceptably changing the character of the lane. The proposal would see trees on the verge lost over a considerable length of the frontage of the site and no doubt more with an ‘upgrade’ of the lane.

The Adopted Local Plan only includes the southern part of the application site, so we would expect the proposal to be refused for this reason alone. The development limit as recently drawn (and unacceptable to us) does not include the additional land to the north.

The Government urges Local Planning Authorities to review local plans and keep them up to date at least every 5 years. In any Selective Alterations we would urge that this site is deleted from the housing allocations and the development limit adjusted accordingly in line with previous opinion of the Council. The possible loss of 52 dwellings or 73 dwellings as in this application would not be a serious matter, given the very high provision currently and that the 5 year supply of housing land is running at almost 7 years.

The proposal is unsuitable as a housing site for all the reasons that the planning authority listed in the Assessment of site options of 2011, when it was inexplicably revived (over a smaller area) in the Additional Sites Consultation of 2017.

This proposal reverts to the larger site but, even if it was the current H2 site, many objections would still apply due to;

(a) the poor relationship with necessary local facilities

(b) an unacceptable increase in traffic on several nearby suburban junctions.

(c) an estate access point on an unsuitable narrow country lane, plus any upgrading including widening of Knox Lane, the unacceptable introduction of a footway or further loss of verge and trees.

(d) damage to Knox Lane as it approaches the historic Knox Hamlet, the listed Spruisty Bridge and Oak Beck at the location of the ex-ford including loss of trees on the lane and within the site.

(e) Knox hamlet, although not being a conservation area, should be considered an undesignated heritage asset and should not be allowed to coalesce with the current urban edge of Harrogate.

(f) encroachment into the countryside, which is designated a Special Landscape Area and possible damage to trees with TPO.

(g) our belief that that it is unnecessary to build on this land due to more than adequate housing provision and the healthy 5year supply of housing land.

For all of the above reasons, the application should be refused.

Yours faithfully,
Henry Pankhurst
Harrogate Civic Socity