A PROPOSAL to build an 85-home estate on farm fields has been recommended for approval by council officers, despite developers appearing to bypass a requirement to provide green space and offering to build less than the authority’s affordable housing target.

Hambleton District Council’s planning committee will next week consider the scheme for 85 homes, of which 23 will be affordable, on the north side of Bedale Road, at Aiskew, near Bedale is beside Wilbert Farm, a site where planning permission has been secured for 116 homes. Aiskew and Leeming Bar Parish Council has raised concerns over the timing of the application during the pandemic, reducing its ability to meet and discuss the proposal with residents.

Concerns have also been raised over traffic on the proposed site and the Wilbert Farm development, the “uninspired design” of the proposed homes and sewerage and flooding issues.

The report states green space and a children’s play area should be provided on developments of between 10 and 79m, but this “was not proposed” by the developers. The officers said they had requested a contribution towards the provision instead.

However, the developer has agreed to contribute to a new Zebra crossing on Bedale Road and estimated value of these works was £35,000.

An officer’s report on the plan states despite a proposed link road to the Wilbert Farm site, “it is clear that the local community remain extremely concerned about the use of Sandhill Lane by the traffic generated by the Wilbert Farm development”.

The officer’s report concludes that highways officers are satisfied existing and planned roads will adequately provide for the development, and a proposed link from the Wilbert Farm site would have “a significant, beneficial impact in reducing the impact of traffic” on Sandhill Lane. The report said, partly as a result of the link road cost, the council’s policy of 40 per cent affordable homes on such developments would not be met. It said just 23 of the properties would be affordable.