A DEVELOPER has lost a fight to build a small estate of homes just outside Skipton on land partly beneath the flyover of the A629 Western Bypass.

Mandale Homes North Yorkshire appealed to the Planning Inspectorate in September last year after its plans to build 30 homes off Broughton Road, on land close to Niffany Farm and next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, were refused permission by the former Craven District Council.

It was a scaled-down version of an earlier plan for 42 homes on the site which was also refused by the council in 2021, and upheld on appeal. Confident of eventual success, the principle of housing already established eight years ago, the developer went ahead and opened a sales shop, now closed, on Belmont Bridge, Skipton, and claimed to have secured 'early bird reservations' for the new homes.

A Government planning inspector has now dismissed the developer's latest appeal and upheld the refusal, made by Craven Council in October, 2022.

In their decision, the inspector says the proposed housing, including landscaping and public open space, would 'result in an intensive form of development in this rural setting'.

Considering the effect of the proposal on the Skipton Conservation Area, next to the site, as a main issue, the inspector says: "The development, despite the flyover further along the road, would intrude into the setting of the conservation area in this location."

The just under three acre site was given outline planning permission by Craven Council in 2016 and has had a new, improved access built off Broughton Road, now much overgrown.

Mandale Homes had argued in its appeal that the required number of new houses to be built between 2012 and 2032 of 220 would not be met as there were not enough sites in Skipton with planning permission.

The inspector noted: "There is no dispute that there would be social benefits through the creation of housing, including on-site affordable housing and the provision of on site open space with and off-site contribution.

"Moreover, economic benefits would result, during both the construction period and from residents accessing local services and facilities, and environmental benefits from proposed landscaping and habitat creation. However, no evidence has been put forward that these factors provide special circumstances."

The inspector added that the number of new homes built in Skipton over ten years to 2021/2022 was only slightly less than the target, despite the Covid-19 pandemic; and latest evidence was that the town would provide more housing than planned.

"The latest evidence indicates that Skipton will provide more housing than planned. It has not been demonstrated that the planned growth for the settlement (Skipton) will not be delivered," said the decision notice. 

Development of the site would be 'incongruous' to the setting of the conservation area and harm the rural setting by intruding into views from the towpath.

"Although the layout (of the proposed development) has changed since a previous application was dismissed on appeal, the proposed housing, as well as the access road, would result in an intensive form of development in this rural setting.

"It would introduce a significant number of houses within the open countryside which appears quite separate from the built-up area of Skipton further east."

North Yorkshire councillor Andy Solloway, who represents Skipton West, welcomed the decision and said: "Whoever thought building homes under a bypass with a tricky access off a main road into Skipton was a good idea, has had common sense thrust upon them.

"Sometimes the planning inspectors get things right."

In October, two people in their 70s died after the car they were travelling in left the A629, crashed though the road barriers on the flyover and landed at the far end of the site next to the canal.

Mandale Homes has been asked for a comment.