What will become of Killinghall after 78 more homes approved?

Residents in Killinghall fear their village will turn into a ‘building site’ after 78 more homes were approved for Picking Croft Lane on Thursday.
tis. The Killinghall Village sign. 1204074aa.tis. The Killinghall Village sign. 1204074aa.
tis. The Killinghall Village sign. 1204074aa.

Despite concerns raised by residents during a Harrogate Borough Council meeting on May 27, the plans were approved by a vote of 12-2 with one abstention.

The houses will be a mixture of terraced, semi-detached and detached properties, predominantly over two stories and will now be built over an area of just under three hectares.

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Although the plans were approved, Killinghall Parish Council has raised objections over the location of the school’s car park and the lack of parking spaces which could lead to road congestion.

Killinghall resident Sylvia Turner, who has been part of a campaign group opposing the plans, said she was concerned about the impact the application would have on traffic in the village.

She said: “We think the same, as the rest of the plans that have been approved. Nobody is giving consideration to the traffic or the amount of planning applications there are for Killinghall.

“It seems that there is no answer to the traffic problem as they strive to build houses. This application is going ahead and there are going to be big problems caused by that.

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“A lot of people in the village think that if all these plans go ahead, as well as the Tesco development, then people in Killinghall are going to be living in a building site for the next few years.”

Despite Ms Turner’s concerns about traffic, Miller Homes developments confirmed that the construction traffic would be ‘actively managed’ to cause ‘minimal disruption’ to the village.

The application had already been amended since its first submission with the number of houses reduced from 82 to 78.

The village has already seen three separate planning permissions for more than 270 homes granted in 2014 with applications for further homes at Nidd House Farm and Moor Close still pending.

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With the latest batch of houses approved for the village, Ms Turner believes there’s a growing danger that residents will no longer be living in a rural location.

She said: “This village is having more than its fair share of houses. It seems that it’s the location that’s attractive and there are plenty of opportunities with the fields available.

“If a farmer is offered a no-win no-fee situation then who is going to turn that down?

“There is a danger of all the plans getting approved and I just hope somebody will see sense because, at the moment, houses are being built at the expense of everything else.

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“We have been doing the best we can and people are opposing the plans because there are just too many. It’s going to double the size of the village and it won’t be a village for much longer.

People come to live here because they want to live in a rural location but it seems that that is not going to last for much longer.”