Ambitious plans to create a new 3,000-house village in North Yorkshire could be “fatally undermined” by a failure to acquire all the land needed for the scheme, councillors have been warned.
In a letter to North Yorkshire Council, agents for landowner Benjamin Dent say their client remains unwilling to provide 42 per cent of the land earmarked for the proposed Maltkiln settlement.
Plans for the new village, which would be centred around Cattal railway station, between York and Harrogate, were discussed by members of the council’s executive.
They agreed that the development plan document (DPD) for the scheme should next be debated by the authority’s full council next month.
North Yorkshire Council has previously said it would use compulsory purchase orders (CPO) to acquire the land to deliver the settlement if necessary.
But in the letter seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Stuart Vendy, from Veritas Planning, agents for the landowner, says the council has failed to consider the implications for the project of a failure to obtain his client’s land using a CPO.
He said: “If the CPO is unsuccessful, a substantial portion of the envisaged settlement will ultimately be undeliverable in its entirety, and the overall sustainability of the settlement will likely be fatally undermined.”
Mr Vendy said this issue had not been addressed in a report by officers for last week’s meeting.
He added: “To date, we are disappointed the council does not seem to have fully considered the implications of a failed CPO and we remain concerned with the council’s approach.”
However, the council report states that it believed there was a reasonable prospect that a CPO would succeed, with the planning inspector supporting this view.
Negotiations over the land between the council and Mr Dent collapsed in 2022.
Areas for employment and education are planned as part of the Maltkiln development, as well as health services, shops and community spaces.
The original scheme was for 4,000 new homes, but this was reduced to ‘at least 3,000’ after a different landowner pulled out.
Councillors say that creating new settlements is the only way North Yorkshire can meet its target of delivering 4,200 homes a year.
The plan to build Maltkiln has been criticised by local communities and councillors, who say the area of North Yorkshire is the wrong place for the village.
Green Party councillor Arnold Warneken, who represents the Ouseburn division, has also called on the authority to ensure the development does not become a “housing estate in the countryside”.
