Officers back 133 homes at Cow Dyke Farm and 20 over-55 affordable flats on Knaresborough Road, with £1.13m for schools and £154,836 towards GP care.
Two housing schemes totalling 153 homes come before councillors in Harrogate next Tuesday, and officers recommend approving both. The Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Planning Committee meets at 2pm on 25 August in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre, St Luke’s Avenue, HG1 2AE.
Only two applications are on the agenda, and both are major. Together they would bring more than £1.4m of contributions towards schools, GP care and open space, and 73 of the 153 homes would be affordable.
133 homes at Cow Dyke Farm, Skipton Road
The larger scheme is a reserved matters application from Miller Homes and Home Group for 133 dwellings on land at Cow Dyke Farm, off Skipton Road. Outline permission was granted in 2017 under reference 17/01899/OUTMAJ. Members asked at that stage that any reserved matters application come back to committee, which is why it is being decided in public rather than by officers.
Most of the site is allocated for housing as H56 in the Harrogate District Local Plan. Access would be from two points off Malham Drive, with a secondary pedestrian route straight onto Skipton Road.
The officer report sets out what the scheme contains:
- 133 homes of one to five bedrooms, mostly two storeys, in terraced, semi-detached and detached forms
- 53 affordable homes, 40% of the total, split into 36 for affordable rent and 17 for shared ownership
- off-street parking, cycle storage and an electric vehicle charging point for every home
- public open space with a play area in the north-western corner, plus community gardens and a trim trail
- 63 accessible and adaptable homes to building regulations standard M4(2) and six wheelchair-accessible M4(3) homes
The section 106 money is the part most residents will feel. The agreed heads of terms come to £1,126,936.57 for education, of which £543,049.75 goes to Killinghall CofE Primary School and £388,388.91 is shared between Harrogate Grammar School, Rossett School and Harrogate High School. A further £86,887.96 is for special educational needs provision and £108,609.95 for early years.
Health gets £154,836 to fund works at Jennyfields Health Centre or towards new primary care development. Off-site open space contributions total £184,663.97, going to Jennyfields Recreation Area (£62,612.40), St Thomas Churchyard (£56,178.30) and Killinghall Moor pitches (£65,873.27).
The hedgerow that objectors want kept
Seventeen residents wrote in over four rounds of consultation, in August 2025, in November and December 2025, in February and March 2026, and again in July 2026. Nobody commented in the third round.
The recurring objection is the loss of about 160 metres of hawthorn hedgerow along the southern boundary, reference H2-C1. Objectors argue it is an important ecological feature, that it stabilises soil, that it screens the development, and that removing it is unlawful because it is protected under the Hedgerow Regulations 1997.
Officers disagree. Two Hedgerow Regulation Assessments were submitted, one on wildlife and one on archaeological and historical value, and both concluded the hedge does not qualify as “important” under the 1997 regulations. The report also puts the numbers in context: there is currently 1,080.50m of native hedgerow on the site, 433.00m of new hedgerow is proposed, and the post-development total would be 1,326.40m. The biodiversity calculation shows a net change of +1.21 habitat units and +1.69 hedgerow units.
The other objections raised over the four rounds were:
- access through Malham Drive being unsuitable for heavy vehicles
- construction traffic passing close to a children’s play area
- affordable homes concentrated in one part of the site
- pressure on infrastructure objectors say is already at capacity
- increased flood risk, including during construction
The council’s own housing team made the same point about clustering. It would prefer a smaller concentration of affordable units in the central and south-western part of the site.
Arboriculture and ecology both objected initially and both withdrew their objections after revised information was submitted.
20 over-55 flats on Knaresborough Road
The second application, HGTZC24/00012/FULMAJ, is from Harrogate Housing Association. It would demolish Applegarth Homes on Knaresborough Road, a two-storey building containing 10 apartments for older people, and replace it with 20 affordable apartments restricted to residents aged over 55.
The report describes 14 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom flats in a two-and-a-half storey building of red brick with red roof tiles, built using modular construction. Nineteen parking spaces would sit behind the building, with a further resident space and a delivery bay at the front. All 20 homes would be affordable, and the scheme carries £20,759.85 of off-site open space contributions plus a £500 monitoring fee.
Eleven people wrote in, three supporting and eight objecting. Supporters said the existing building is outdated and has problems with mould and damp, and that the replacement would be easier for people with disabilities. Objectors raised the increased ridge height, overlooking of neighbouring gardens, light pollution from the rear elevation, noise from ground source heat pumps, and parking for carers. One asked that a new clock replicate the existing one in size and design. Another argued the open space money should go to Long Lands Common in Knaresborough rather than the play area at Rosewood.
Harrogate Civic Society and the town council had initial concerns about losing the existing building. Officers concluded it is not a non-designated heritage asset. It has brick porches, date stones and clock detailing, but has lost much of its original character through changes to windows, rainwater goods and materials. The site is about 500 metres from the conservation area boundary.
Why both are recommended for approval
The same reasoning appears in both reports. The council can currently demonstrate 2.2 years of housing land supply, against the five years national policy requires. That engages paragraph 11(d) of the National Planning Policy Framework, and with it the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
For the former Harrogate area, the five-year requirement including the 5% buffer is 5,492 homes. The deliverable supply, on 2024/25 monitoring data, is 2,408. We reported on how that figure was calculated earlier this month.
In practice that means permission should be granted unless the harm significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits. Officers concluded it does not in either case.
What it means for you
The meeting is open to the public as observers and will be live broadcast and recorded, with the video going onto the council’s website and YouTube channel. If you want to record it yourself, contact the democratic services officer before it starts. Anyone exercising a right to speak who does not want to be recorded can tell the chair.
Written comments on both applications closed with the consultation rounds, so Tuesday is the decision point rather than a further chance to object. The contact for the meeting is Dawn Drury, Democratic Services Officer, on 01757 292065 or democraticservices.central@northyorks.gov.uk.
The next meeting of this committee is Tuesday 29 September at 2pm. You can follow what else is in the pipeline on our Harrogate planning news page, and the committee papers themselves are on the council’s agenda page.
Have your say
We read every message. To comment on this story, email the newsdesk and we may publish a selection of responses: hello@harrogatelive.co.uk.