Council rejects Snainton housing plan over ‘insufficient and inaccurate’ information

The council has rejected plans for 21 new dwellings in Snainton near Scarborough due to the submission of ‘insufficient and inaccurate information’.

A proposal by Mulgrave Developments Ltd to build 19 houses and extend an existing property in Snainton has been refused by North Yorkshire Council.

The proposed site was located on land to the north of Green Lane, west of Scarborough.

If plans had been approved, the existing five-bed Carr House would have been converted into two dwellings with two bedrooms each.

The other 19 one and two-storey houses would have had between two and four bedrooms each.

However, the application received a swathe of objections from dozens of residents, the parish council, and statutory consultees.

More than forty locals wrote to the council to oppose the scheme, with many raising concerns that the development would exacerbate existing issues with traffic and local infrastructure, a lack of public transport and services, and concerns about overdevelopment.

One resident said that new residents’ cars would “irrevocably alter Green Lane destroying its community value as an enjoyable, safe, recreational area for the whole community to enjoy”.

Another local stated: “I am concerned that the proximity and height of the proposed dwellings closest to The Orchard would result in overlooking, loss of privacy, overshadowing, and would be overbearing to nearby dwellings.”

Snainton Parish Council and the Highway Authority objected to the plans echoing many of the concerns raised by local residents.

The NHS Integrated Care Board said that the existing GP practice covering Snainton does “not have the capacity to accommodate the additional growth resulting from the proposed development.”

Planning officers reported that “insufficient information” had been submitted to properly assess the impact on protected species such as bats and water voles.

They stated that “insufficient and inaccurate information has been provided regarding the biodiversity net gain baseline figure for the existing site”.

A council report also maintained that the proposed works were “considered to result in harm to the visual amenity and character of the edge of village location”.

It added: “The required highway improvements cannot be achieved without resulting in an adverse impact on the setting and character of the area.”

North Yorkshire Council concluded that the submission of information by the applicant “was considered to be too late in the process” and the scheme was refused.