A MAJOR sugar beet processing plant which could be built less than 15 miles from York is facing opposition on heritage grounds.

Earlier this year it emerged a Middle Eastern sugar giant has drawn up plans to create up to 300 jobs with a new 24-hour plant at Allerton Park.

Al Khaleej International’s proposed plant, near the A59/ A1 junction, would see sugar processing return to North Yorkshire for the first time since British Sugar’s York site closed in 2007.

An early stage environment application has gone in to Harrogate District Council, but responses are now revealing fears for the heritage and landscape impact of such a large development.

The Campaign to Protect for Rural England (CPRE) has written to Harrogate’s planners with a string of concerns - starting with the “significant impact on the local infrastructure leading to increased congestion and pollution” that a development of the sugar plant’s scale would make.

The CPRE also said the 180 x 60 metre storage containers would create a “significant visual impact” in the rural area, and their letter says the council needs to consider the cumulative impact of the sugar plant and the existing waste incinerator at Allerton Park - particularly on the number of lorries coming to and from and two sites.

York Press:

Dr Gerald Rolph, who has extensively restored the nearby Allerton Castle before handing it over to a foundation to be preserved for the public, has his own concerns.

He has warned the plant will see traffic increase on the nearby A59 and A168 - making troublesome junctions even worse. At the same time, the fragile 18th century park wall that runs alongside the A168 could be damaged by the growing numbers of heavy trucks heading to the plant.

On top of that, building such a large plant so close to heritage assets will have an impact on the historic buildings, he added.

Dr Rolph said: “The legislation says the landscapes around a listed property is of equal importance as the building.”

Constructing the new plant so close to the Grade II listed castle would change its setting, and would hit the wedding market on which it relies for income to fund the maintenance and care of the building, he added. “It’s important for England to protect its heritage because once it’s gone, it cannot be recovered,” Dr Rolph said.

Parish councils in the area have also made their fears known - again citing the cumulative effect of the proposed sugar beet plant on top of the waste incinerator plant, new settlements at Flaxby and Green Hammerton, and a business park planned at Flaxby Green Park.