1,500 homes plan on hold over 'affordable' quota

Senior planners have deferred a decision on whether 1,500 houses should be built in North Yorkshire, after calls for more of the new homes to be affordable.

Banks Property's application - for land on the edge of Eggborough, near Selby - proposed that a "minimum" of 10% of the new-builds would be classed as affordable.

At a meeting of North Yorkshire Council planners, it was decided the quota would be reassessed and debated again at a later date.

Jamilah Hassan of Banks Property said: "We will continue to work constructively with officers and consultees to respond to the issues raised."

The scheme was up before the council's strategic planning committee, which deals with large-scale applications.

Meeting in Selby, its members heard multiple calls for the number of affordable homes to be increased.

Mary McCartney, a member of nearby Kellington Parish Council, said: "It should be increased from 10% to 40%."

For a home to be deemed affordable, it needs to cost less than five times average workers' earnings, a figure which, last March, was put at just under £156,000.

Angela Rushton, who lives in Eggborough and has campaigned against the plan, said: "Common sense has prevailed.

"We've got a chance to put our position again at the next meeting."

Rushton said: "It's important, we need a mix. There are lots of homes that have been built in the village that are all around the £400,000 to £500,000 mark.

"So there isn't the need for those kind of houses, but the main thing for me is not to have three-storey houses built. They just don't fit in."

Rushton - who spoke against the entire plan - said her position remained the same, that any more building in Eggborough was "not sustainable".

"We will get around canvassing everyone, leafleting in the first instance then going around the village to see what support we can garner," she said.

The vote came after a motion put to the committee by Green Party councillor Andy Brown.

As well as the affordable quota being reassessed, there will also be an independent assessment of affordability.

"Local people do need housing, but they need housing they can afford to buy or rent," Brown said.

"When you get a development of 1,500 houses, and only 10% of them are going to be any form of affordable, that doesn't meet the needs of this community."

Hassan said Banks believed the plan would create a "high quality, well-connected and sustainable extension" to Eggborough.

She added: "We hope that our proposals will come back before North Yorkshire Council's strategic planning committee in the near future, and that its members will be minded to support the recommendation to approve made by their expert planning officers."

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