Councillors to decide on 38-home Gargrave scheme

Councillors will meet on Monday to consider plans to build 38 homes on land off Marton Road in Gargrave.

The application has been submitted by developer R N Wooler and Co Ltd and follows a previous bid for housing on the site that was refused by the former Craven District Council in January 2023.
According to planning documents, the homes will all be built with sandstone with the majority having either two or three bedrooms.
The site would be accessed directly off Marton Road via a new junction.

The developer has pledged to create 11 affordable homes on the site, which amounts to 29% of the overall scheme.
This is just under the council’s requirement of 30% affordable on greenfield sites. However, its housing team has not submitted an objection to the proposals.

If the application is approved, the developer would pay £138,354 to the council which would be spent on improving open spaces in the area.
The land is allocated for development in the Craven local plan.

Councillors on the Skipton and Ripon planning committee will meet on Monday at 1pm to decide on the plans, which have been recommended for approval by a council officer.

A statement attached to the application said the scheme would benefit the local area and help deliver housebuilding targets.
It said: “The proposals do not just involve the creation of new dwellings, they also involve the creation of a beautiful, landscaped scheme of gardens and open space that ensures sensitive interaction and integration with the surrounding built and rural contexts.”

The application has proved unpopular within Gargrave and has received 111 objections. The council received 17 letters of support.
Objectors cited overdevelopment, poor highway access and local infrastructure being unable to cope with the increase in housing.
Gargrave Parish Council also objected to the plans.

Several objectors cited a lack of footpaths from the development to the village but the council said in a report that it would not be a ” proportionate, viable, or reasonable proposition” to expect a footway into Gargrave.