The deadline for official comments is the 29th August.

The Parish Council has submitted a detailed objection to Caddick’s outline planning application for 85 houses south of Mains Lane. The proposal sits outside the village’s defined development boundary and conflicts with the adopted Development Plan. While the need for housing is recognised, the Council concludes that the harms and risks significantly outweigh any benefits.

We have put the Executive Summary below with the main areas of objection and residents who wish to object are welcome to use or adapt any of these points in their own submissions.

The full and very comprehensive objection document is attached below.

Executive Summary

Bishop Monkton Parish Council OBJECTS to planning application 26/03292/OUTMAJ for up to 85 dwellings at Milner Farm. The objection is based on the scale and cumulative effect of the proposal, the present lack of foul sewer capacity identified by Yorkshire Water, documented recent sewage escapes within the village, unresolved gypsum and ground-stability implications, the constrained rural highway network, harm to the rural settlement edge and heritage setting, pressure on the effective developable area, and uncertainty over whether all necessary mitigation and infrastructure can be delivered together.

Principal reasons for objection

1. Conflict with the spatial strategy and national policy tests. The site lies outside the defined development limits of Bishop Monkton and is not an allocated housing site. The Parish Council recognises that the current five-year housing-land-supply shortfall is a material consideration under the 2026 NPPF. However, Policy S5 requires development outside settlements which addresses unmet housing need to be of a scale that can be accommodated taking account of existing or proposed infrastructure. The Parish Council is not satisfied that this has been demonstrated here.
2. Cumulative growth and village identity. The Parish Council’s housing-stock analysis uses a baseline of 395 dwellings and shows a progression to 570 dwellings after Church Farm (+32), Avant (+58) and Milner Farm (+85): a cumulative increase of approximately 44%. The issue is the combined change to the scale, infrastructure and identity of Bishop Monkton, not 85 dwellings viewed in isolation.
3. Foul drainage capacity and existing network problems. Yorkshire Water states that the sewer network does not presently have sufficient available capacity for the development, that the proposal may cause Bishop Monkton Waste Water Treatment Works (WwTW) to fail an agreed standard, and that Yorkshire Water would likely not support the proposal. The previously proposed foul-water point of discharge is no longer valid. This current assessment sits alongside documented sewage escapes within the village, Yorkshire Water’s earlier acknowledgement of operational issues and a network getting close to capacity, and 2024 Environment Agency EDM data recording storm-overflow operation at Bishop Monkton No. 2 STW.
4. Gypsum and ground stability. The JBA/Ousewem catchment study identifies soluble-rock and sinkhole risk across Bishop Monkton and advises that, absent supporting survey evidence, locations should be assumed susceptible to subsidence risk. Run-off attenuation and management is rated as having a high potential impact on development of a new or existing sinkhole network. The interaction between site-specific geology and the proposed drainage system requires resolution.
5. Highway network resilience and safety. The proposal adds traffic to a constrained rural road network characterised by narrow carriageways, single-width sections, pinch points, narrow bridges, limited passing opportunities and dependence on critical access points. Dated Parish Council photographs also demonstrate flooding affecting principal approach routes. The Parish Council’s concern is the cumulative safety and resilience of the network, including pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians, agricultural vehicles and emergency access.
6. Landscape and settlement-edge harm. The site forms part of the transition from Bishop Monkton to open countryside. Development would urbanise this edge through housing, estate roads, lighting, drainage and associated infrastructure. The applicant’s landscape mitigation is therefore fundamental, not optional.
7. Heritage setting. The proposal affects the rural setting of The Old Vicarage and views involving St John the Baptist Church. Building height, massing, setbacks, structural planting and development-free areas must be treated as substantive constraints on the layout.
8. Effective site capacity and mitigation. The mitigation package is necessary to make the development acceptable and must therefore be treated as fixed. Once the land required for SuDS, landscape buffers, retained trees and hedgerows, biodiversity, public open space, heritage protection and highway infrastructure is properly allowed for, the Parish Council is not satisfied that the remaining effective developable area can accommodate 85 dwellings without compromising that necessary mitigation.
9. Community infrastructure. Growth must be matched by timely infrastructure. Healthcare, education, utilities, drainage and transport should be considered cumulatively. Financial mitigation does not itself create immediate physical capacity.
10. Planning balance. The Parish Council recognises the housing benefits and the current five-year housing-land-supply shortfall. It also notes that the 2025 Housing Delivery Test records North Yorkshire at 218%, with no HDT policy consequence. In the Parish Council’s judgement, the cumulative harms, infrastructure constraints and unresolved environmental risks identified in this representation substantially outweigh the benefits of the proposal. Permission should be refused.

If the Local Planning Authority is nevertheless minded to grant permission, the Parish Council requests binding safeguards, including Grampian-style controls preventing development or occupation from getting ahead of foul drainage reinforcement and site-specific ground-stability/drainage resolution.