Council chiefs have given the go-ahead for work to progress on the new Maltkiln village development — despite an 11th-hour plea from villagers for a decision to be delayed.
North Yorkshire Council this week voted in favour of adopting the development plan document for the 3,000-home scheme centred around Cattal railway station, between York and Harrogate.
The full council meeting at County Hall, Northallerton, heard how, ahead of the vote, the council had received a letter from Kirk Hammerton Parish Council, which neighbours the site of the proposed development, asking for the decision to be deferred.
Councillor Arnold Warneken, from the Green Party, whose Ouseburn division includes the location of the proposed scheme, said the villagers were “not nimbys”.
He added:
“They are not an anti-Maltkiln. What they are concerned about is what started off as a garden village all those years ago has drifted into being what appears to be a conventional type of housing development.”
The meeting heard that a compulsory purchase order (CPO) may be used by the council to acquire some of the land needed for the scheme after a landowner pulled out.
Cllr Warneken questioned how much a CPO would cost the authority.
In response to the parish council’s concerns, Councillor Mark Crane, executive member for open for business, said modifications made to the plans after one landowner pulled out were not significant.
He said:
“Kirk Hammerton are, understandably I think, very nervous about this large settlement on their doorstep.
“There continues to be separation between Maltkiln and Kirk Hammerton so it will be very much a separate settlement.”
He added:
“If we move this today and council agrees to go ahead with Maltkiln as a new settlement, we will go back into negotiation discussions with the people who have withdrawn their land.
“We have been clear in the past that we can and would be willing to CPO that land if necessary.
“I believe that is the right decision in order to make Maltkiln happen if we need to do it.”
Cllr Crane said it would cost a “significant sum of money” to buy the land.
But he added that it would then be sold to a developer for housing and the council would recover its costs from the sale.
Areas for employment and education are planned as part of the development, as well as health services, shops and community spaces.
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