Updated – Latest Parish Council Meeting Highlights and draft minutes – 16 Sep 2025

Agenda & Minutes

The agenda pack can be found here and minutes will be available in the same location when available. (Updated publishing date to reflect draft minutes being available).

Highlights

Caddick Group: Caddick came to the meeting to give a presentation on the ‘speculative planning application’ that they are looking to put forward for the area of Mains Lane. They are looking to build in the region of 83 new homes. The graphic of that development can be found here, however,  Caddick were clear that the way the housing is presented in the image is a representation rather than a finished design. The council outlined the objections that were recently put together for the Avant proposal (available here) which would be equally applicable to this development.

Caddick have submitted a pre-app to the council to gauge views and their next step is consultancy around infrastucture of the area. They anticipate putting their application in around Christmas and will be holding public consultations. This was the first time that Caddick Group have engaged with the council and they are keen to gain views from the village. We feel that we need to understand the impact on the village of current plans before others are accepted and will be following this closely.

North Yorkshire Citizens Advice and Law Centre: NYCALC wrote to us outlining the work they’ve been doing and their preparation for autumn and winter where they expect a greater demand on them. If you are able to help them by donating, they would be very grateful and ways to do so can be found at https://www.cany.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising/. If you need their services, ways to get in touch, can be found at https://www.cany.org.uk/get-advice/.

North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel: We also received a note from the Mayor’s Office in relation to the recruitment to the Police, Fire and Crime Panel. The panel is looking for 3 individuals with the necessary skills, enthusiasm and commitment to join as independent co-opted members of the panel and to bring a fresh, external perspective to its work. More details and how to apply can be found here:

Avant Meeting: Two members of the Avant team recently met the Working Group of the Parish Council responsible for development issues.  This was an informal meeting.

Avant were keen to meet to present their latest plans and hear our feedback.  Our feedback was consistent with our formal response & objection to their planning application which can be found here.  The following issues were discussed:

1. Flooding (Surface Water) : The plan to divert the attenuated surface water from the development away from the Beck and into the “Kebbell” pipe running across the playing fields was discussed – it is acknowledged that it is likely to be an improvement to the previous proposal.  Avant’s consultants have confirmed that capacity in the pipe exists for the additional flow.  Yorkshire Water will be responsible for the connection of the system from the Avant boundary to the proposed tie in point near the croquet lawns.  Before this can happen, the existing (Kebbell) pipe must be adopted by Yorkshire Water.
2. Foul Water / Sewerage : We expressed our concern over the lack of capacity and consent breaches at the sewerage works.  Avant see this as entirely Yorkshire Water’s responsibility. Avant claim that YW has confirmed capacity exists, and it is their responsibility to upgrade as and when necessary. Whilst disappointing, this response was hardly surprising.
3. Design and Appearance : The reduction in density of the development and retention of existing hedgerows was acknowledged.  Avant seemed rather taken aback / upset with our criticism of the continuing “urban” look of the development, citing design features carried across from existing buildings in the village (this document is on the planning portal).  We expressed surprise that, for example, there were no cobble features in the visible elevations, something which has been done at Harvest View and Renton Close.  We also expressed concern that the benchmark for housing appearance in the village (important for future developments) would be lowered.
4. Environmental : Avant confirmed that all houses will have in-roof solar panels and EV chargers.
5. Highway Infrastructure : We asked whether Avant would consider using the planned emergency entrance to the site on Moor Road as a second permanent access point, to ease traffic flows on Knaresborough Road.  Avant rejected this – partly due to it being unnecessary and partly due to the scale of alterations needed to Moor Road (hedgerows etc.) to allow the access to be safe.
6. Controls during the building phase (traffic movements, noise etc.) : Avant accepted all of our requests here.