PLANNERS have opened the door to a rival site for a 3,000-home new settlement west of York.

A report says Harrogate council officers still believe a massive development to meet the district’s future housing need should be based in the Hammerton area under the Local Plan, despite huge local protests.

However, they say that as well as land between Green Hammerton and Kirk Hammerton - dubbed Great Hammerton - an alternative site at nearby Cattal, named Maltkiln Village by developers, should also be considered fully.

The move has disappointed the Keep Green Hammerton Green campaign group, which argued strongly in a summer public consultation that the settlement should instead be built on a third possible site, alongside the A1 and A59 at Flaxby.

Spokesman Chris Chelton said they remained convinced that a disused golf course at Flaxby, with an access roundabout already built off the A59, remained a better site.

He said the group now needed more details about Maltkiln and its impact on the area, and the group would be seeking more clarity in coming days.

The Oakgate Group, the developers behind the Maltkiln scheme, said it was delighted by the council’s change in approach, which was a ‘welcome opportunity to agree a common set of aspirations for a new settlement to meet the long term housing needs of the borough.’

It said it firmly believed that proposals that focussed on Cattal railway station were ‘best placed to create a sustainable and attractive development that will become a highly desirable place to live and work.

“We very much look forward to working with the council, the local community and the many other stakeholders to develop the proposals in parallel with concluding the borough council’s Local Plan process.”

It added that the Maltkiln plans included about 3,000 dwellings, cycle and pedestrian routes, healthcare facilities, a village centre including shops, transport links, offices and employment space, a 420 place primary school, highways improvements, a park and ride facility and improvements to Cattal station on the York-Harrogate line.

The new report, which will go to the council’s cabinet, district development committee and then full council, says that having reviewed all the very latest evidence, officers consider the optimum approach would be to "continue to focus on the Green Hammerton option, but introduce additional flexibility to enable full consideration of adjoining land which has also been promoted as a new settlement (Maltkiln)".

It says: “It is proposed that a broad location for a new settlement in the Green Hammerton area should be identified in the Local Plan rather than allocation of an individual site or landownership defined boundary that has been promoted to date.”

It says this approach offers a number of potential benefits, including consideration of the optimum boundary for a new settlement taking account of all key factors including land ownership, infrastructure and master-planning matters.

It also would not result in a delay to the adoption of the Local Plan or meeting local housing requirements within the plan period.

The report says the area has direct and convenient access to the Leeds-Harrogate-York rail corridor providing opportunities for sustainable travel and it is also located with convenient access onto the A59 for local bus services and to the highways network.

“It is sufficiently far enough away from the A1(M) to not suffer from noise or disturbance from that corridor.

“The site is located close to existing village settlements which provide some local services. These could assist in the very early phases of development to provide for day to day.”