AN £85 million science park which could generate more than 2,800 jobs for York and North Yorkshire has been given the green light.

Inspired by York and Cambridge science parks, Flaxby Green Park will be situated alongside the A1, between York and Knaresborough, and will seek to attract bio-science and research and development companies offering often well paid work.

Its conditional approval by Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee has sparked fresh debate over where a separate proposed 2,800-home new settlement should go.

The science park is just across the A59 from one proposed site, Flaxby Park, which has been rejected by Harrogate planners as their preferred location in favour of land between Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton, dubbed Great Hammerton.

But protesters there say the science park means there is even more reason for Flaxby Park to be chosen for the new settlement.

Chris Chelton, chairman of Keep Green Hammerton Green, said: “The business park is yet another reason why Flaxby Park is the obvious choice for the new settlement, offering potential employment to new residents who would be able to walk and cycle to work, diminishing the need for even more traffic on the already-burdened A59.”

He added that Flaxby Park already had a multi-million pound roundabout off the A59 on to a former golf course which already had some infrastructure in place.

The science park, the access road to which will also come off the same A59 roundabout, will create about 300 construction jobs per annum over a five-year period, said property consultant Rupert Visick, of Forward Investment.

He said an economic need and benefits study by Regeneris, submitted with the planning application, noted that the park at full capacity had the potential to create up to 2,840 full time equivalent jobs.

He said a number of science parks were taken as inspiration for Flaxby Green Park, including those in both York and Cambridge.

“It will be a state-of-the-art science technology park which will harness green technologies in its design,” he said.

“The benefits of the scheme are wide ranging; not just significant job creation and economic development for the district but ensuring local companies have somewhere to expand to ensure Harrogate companies stay in Harrogate,” he said.

“The woodlands will be enhanced, public access facilitated – significant new volumes of trees will be planted and ecological habitats will be enhanced.”

Asked for the intended timescale, he said the development team was currently working on infrastructure strategy and design. “We are anticipating submitting to planning the first phase of infrastructure works early this autumn,” he added.

Smalley Marsey Rispin, the architects for the scheme’s masterplan, said the park would be a “leap forward in the provision of modern, innovative design opportunities for new and existing businesses, ensuring future investment growth and jobs for Harrogate and our wider district”. A council spokesman said the planning application was deferred for the Chief Planner to approve subject to conditions.