“WE WILL OBJECT TO AVANT HOMES DEVELOPMENT” SAYS PARISH COUNCIL

At the November meeting of Bishop Monkton Parish Council it was unanimously agreed that the Council would raise an objection to the proposed development by Avant Homes for sixty houses off Moor Road. The meeting had elected Councillor Dean Culshaw to chair the meeting, in accordance with local government regulations. and was well attended by members of the public, who fully participated in the meeting as and when it was permitted.

The three councillors who currently make up the Council, agreed that the Council would stand against the development and then proceeded to debate the content of their objection. Councillor Gareth Sargeson pointed out that, in his opinion and based on his many years of experience in the construction industry, the disruption caused by the development, should it go ahead could lead “to three years of hell for many village residents unless traffic movements are strictly controlled.....Apart from anything else, the plans mean that there will be a huge amount of earth being removed from site-that alone is a lot of traffic during the long construction period”. Coun. Sargeson stressed that details of the transport planning, including a new temporary site entrance away from Knaresborough Road, should be closely specified in any planning permission, should it be granted.

The main focus of the Council's objection will centre around the flooding issues in the village and will include requesting significant flood prevention measures, particularly around the outfall point of the new surface water pipe. It will suggest that the new surface water drainage pipe leads from the site to further down Boroughbridge Road rather than to the current planned outfall point at the bus stop opposite the old Lamb and Flag.

The Council will also make it clear that, at the same time as the new surface water pipe is laid, the developers should lay a new sewage pipe in the same trench.

Other matters discussed during the Parish Council meeting included the playground, budgets, a speeding campaign, community partnership, the councils' new website and a possible pre-Christmas installation of the new Village History Board. Full draft minutes are now on the Parish Council's new website click. To read the minutes highlights click.