ONE of North Yorkshire’s main roads could be diverted to create a bypass for a proposed 2,700-home new settlement.

Harrogate Borough Council officers are “minded to recommend” a site between Kirk Hammerton and Green Hammerton on the A59 York-Harrogate road as the preferred location for a new settlement to help meet the district’s need for new homes.

They say the new “Great Hammerton” would mean new roads, public transport, schools, healthcare, leisure and recreation, new woodland planting and landscaping, parks, a village green, walking and cycling routes and improvements to the existing highway network.

Steve McBurney, head of planning north at developer’s CEG, said: “The scheme also incorporates the potential for downgrading the A59 through Green Hammerton, and re-routing traffic on to a new bypass road.”

He said Great Hammerton would be a “sustainable mixed-use community, providing characterful new homes and facilities in a way that respects the local setting.”

However local say they are outraged by the proposals and claim the infrastructure could not cope with the new residents.

They have already formed a protest group, Keep Green Hammerton Green, to campaign against the proposed development.