Harrogate MP hits out at plight of residents in new housing estates with unfinished roads and missing infrastructure

Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Conservative MP Andrew Jones says residents in new housing estates are being let down by poor coordination between developers, utility companies and their local authorities.

Mr Jones was speaking out after being contacted by residents of new housing estates across his constituency highlighting areas of uncompleted road surfaces, poor drainage, unfinished street kerbs, inadequate street lighting and missing signage.

Most recently he says he was contacted by residents on Garten Close in Knaresborough who have endured more than two years of unfinished roads and drainage.

“Everyone needs to cooperate when new estates are being built to ensure that one organisation isn’t waiting for the other to do something without letting them know," said Mr Jones.

The Harrogate MP further argues that ensuring new housing is built as part of the planning process does not go far enough in itself.

“The councils role - Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council - doesn’t end when planning permission has been given and the developer’s role doesn’t end when the houses are built,” he said.

“Expecting residents to be dodging ditches made during construction and tripping over unfinished kerbs is simply unacceptable as is leaving land in limbo when it should be adopted by the local authority or collectively managed by a resident-led management company.

"Everyone involved needs to ensure that the estate as a whole is finished to a high standard with roads surfaced as soon as possible, surface water drainage that is effective, streetlights that work, street signs installed and so on."

The MP is calling for new building guidelines setting minimum standards that need to be reached on new estates within a time limit agreed with the local council.

“Too often the impression is given that once the houses are up and sold the developer moves on to the next site and doesn’t prioritise the serious snagging issues left behind,” said Mr Jones.

"That is how residents in these areas feel and something I have seen first-hand.

"People are trying to build new communities and to connect with new neighbours.

"That is more difficult when your road looks and feels half-finished.”

Where residents contact him Mr Jones said that he is taking up cases with developers and with the council.

The wave of new housing in the Harrogate district in recent years is part of the Local Plan adopted by the Tory-controlled Harrogate Borough Council which at the moment runs the planning process.

The matter of roads lies in the remit of the Tory-controlled North Yorkshire County Council and its highways department.

The Harrogate District Local Plan 2014-2035 was was adopted by Harrogate Borough Council with the support of all parties on March 4, 2020.

The plan sets out the spatial vision and development strategy for the Harrogate district.

It sets the scale of new development that is planned and a strategy for accommodating this growth; including detailed policies across several thematic areas to manage new development; and allocates specific sites for particular types of development.

The housing requirement for Harrogate district is 637 dwellings per annum.

The plan forms part of the statutory development plan and is used to determine applications for planning permission.