A proposal for a large-scale expansion of one of North Yorkshire’s leading industrial estates, which could lead to the creation of 100 jobs, has been put on hold after locals complained they had not been made aware of the scheme.
Hambleton District Council’s planning committee unanimously voted to postpone a decision over redeveloping five hectares of disused agricultural buildings, parts of the runways of the former RAF Dalton airfield and areas of grassland next to Dalton Airfield Industrial Estate.
The development would feature 16,750sq m of buildings for industrial, distribution and office uses between the villages of Topcliffe and Dalton and would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Alongside the potential for 100 new jobs on the site, the development could create significant additional employment and local trade opportunities in
the construction phase of the development and generate wider economic benefits through supply chains, an officers’ report to the meeting stated.
The report added environmental health officers had concluded there was “a potential that the development would have an adverse impact on nearby residents”, particularly as the applicants were seeking no operating time restrictions.
The meeting heard despite the large-scale of the proposed development and its potential significant impacts neither Topcliffe and Dalton parish councils had remained unaware of it until five days before the meeting.
A planning officer said the authority had checked its systems and “letters definitely did go out” to the parish councils and they did not know why residents were unaware of the proposals.
The meeting heard the potential for more HGVs in the village had alarmed residents in Topcliffe as they had been in talks with North Yorkshire County Council to address traffic issues in the village for more than a year.
The meeting heard trading standards officers had undertaken one traffic prosecution recently and others were “on file”.
Nevertheless, the meeting was told the parish council wanted the developer to fund the enforcement of HGVs route to and from the industrial estate, but had not had a chance to fully examine the proposals.
Jamie Moores, chair of Topcliffe Parish Council, said the industrial estate had seen four expansion proposals “fed to us piecemeal” over the last two years, representing the largest development in the district since Sowerby Gateway was approved a decade ago.
He said while the proposals would all have significant traffic implications for the surrounding area, the planning officer’s report had examined a range of issues such as the environmental impact and potential for bird strike on a disused airfield, but failed to address how it might affect residents.
Coun Moores said: “The conclusion that I drew from reading the report was that seagulls got more attention than the villagers.
“It’s been mentioned that the parish councils didn’t find out about it until Saturday. I think there’s an even more important thing to consider here because the public don’t know about it and they still don’t know about it.”
He said the planning application advert had been placed in the Easingwold Advertiser which was not sold in any of the nearby villages and a notice about the proposed development had been placed beside a road along which nobody walked and traffic passed at 40mph.
Coun Moores said: “I think it’s vital that the public get to know about it, otherwise it’s undemocratic.”
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