PLANS for an £85 million science park at Flaxby have re-ignited the controversy over proposals for a ‘new town’ at Green Hammerton.

Harrogate Borough Council has given conditional approval to Flaxby Green Park, which property consultants say would be a ‘state-of-the-art science technology park’ modelled on the York and Cambridge science parks that could ultimately create more than 2,800 full-time jobs.

That all sounds great. But the new science park would be just across the A59 from Flaxby Park - which has been rejected by Harrogate planners as their preferred location for a new town in favour of ‘Great Hammerton’, near Green Hammerton.

It is the rejection of Flaxby Park as the preferred location for a new town which protesters opposed to Great Hammerton cannot understand.

The Great Hammerton proposals would involve the diversion of the A59 and, at least in the initial stages of the development, put huge strain on health, leisure and recreation facilities at Green Hammerton, they say. The Flaxby Park site, by contrast, already has a multi-million pound roundabout off the A59 in place. And if the science park were to be built on the other side of the A59, it would offer employment virtually on their doorsteps to residents of Flaxby Park, who would be able to walk or cycle to work, they claim.

Borough council bosses have yet to be drawn on why they favour Great Hammerton over Flaxby Park for the new town.

For now, however it would be a shame to let that row overshadow what is essentially good news.

A science park at Flaxby would, in combination with York’s own science city, help build on this area’s reputation for scientific and innovation excellence. Success breed success. And if the new park were to take off as we hope it might, the promised 2,800 new jobs might be only the beginning.