Dismay over flooring firm’s plan to concrete over farmland

File pic. Photo: Marco Paköeningrat/Wikimedia.

Campaigners and residents have called on a council which prides itself on being business-friendly to insist on a full environmental impact assessment of a proposal to build a 40,000sq ft carpets showroom, a 74-bedroom Travelodge hotel and a Starbucks on a popular greenfield site.

Although Calverts Carpets’ planning application has yet to be lodged, its planned £16m development, which also includes 18,000sq ft of industrial units, on grazing farmland on the outskirts of Thirsk has attracted dozens of objections.

Documents submitted to Hambleton District Council state the development would be off the A170 York Road, beside a fuel station, a McDonalds and a Costa drive-thru, food store and lorry park development approved by the authority amid controversy.

Agents for the leading flooring firm have advised the authority, which recently landed the Federation of Small Businesses award for supporting businesses, the proposals do not require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to fully understand its potential impacts.

The papers state the proposal is unlikely to give rise to significant adverse effects associated with the use of natural resources.

The documents state the proposed buildings at the entrance to the market town would be up to three storeys “to ensure the scale of the development is not obtrusive on the surrounding landscape”.

They add: “Any landscape and visual effects of the development would be localised, through mitigation to the design and compensatory measures implemented into the over site layout.”

In a letter of support trustees of Thirsk Youth Club said it was “out-growing all available spaces in Thirsk”, and would be interested in moving to site, but numerous objectors have pointed towards huge amounts of available space for the development on the nearby Sowerby Gateway business park.

Residents have questioned the need for the development, saying while Starbucks already has two other outlets within a few minutes’ drive of the proposed site, Thirsk town centre had many cafes and a sufficient number of hotels, so the development could undermine the town centre’s viability.

Numerous objectors have raised alarm over greenfield sites, particularly ones used for leisure, near Thirsk being developed, with one stating “we trust that Hambleton District Council will act correctly on behalf of its residents”.

One resident wrote: “We are losing all our green spaces to unnecessary development in the so-called name of progress. When will it all end? Do we have to lose more and more biodiversity in the relentless march towards an ever increasing concrete jungle. Once it is gone, it is gone forever. Local people need their voices to be heard.”

Thirsk Friends of the Earth has called on the council to insist on a full EIA, saying the risk of operating industrial units on a site located on an aquifer rated as “highly vulnerable”, close to the Cod Beck and near the Thirsk and Sowerby conservation area were significant.

It highlighted how Hambleton’s recently completed Local Plan states: “Where development would result in the whole or partial loss of an important open space it will not be supported.”

The campaign group said the process was statutory for such large scale developments and studies would allow the whole community to properly understand the impact of the proposals.

Andy Wilson, a former chief executive of the North York Moors National Park Authority, said the campaign group had presented the council with a case for an EIA that was “comprehensive and compelling”.

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