Scarborough Council approves plan for 50 new dwellings in Burniston

The major residential development will be located at a 1.8-hectare site on land to the rear of the Grange High Street, Burniston and will comprise 50 two-storey dwellings.

The project, by Mulgrave Developments Ltd, was approved by Scarborough Council’s Planning and Development Committee at its meeting on Thursday October 6.

No objections to the plans were raised by the Highway Authority, the county archaeologist, the flood authority, or the council’s environmental health team.

NHS North Yorkshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group “calculated that there would be an infrastructure cost of £22,577” which should be paid by the developer.

However, Burniston Parish Council objected to the plans on the grounds that highway access would be “unsuitable” while also objecting due to increased housing density in the area.

During the consultation process and at the committee meeting, concerns were also raised about the development’s provision of affordable homes.

The council’s policy would have required a 30 per cent provision of affordable homes but the final submitted plans only had a 20 per cent provision, after it was raised from 12 per cent.

According to a council report, the authority also “raised concern regarding the size of the affordable homes as originally submitted” regarding compliance with nationally described space standards for housing.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Teresa Norton criticised the final number of affordable homes included in the development and said it “seems to make a little bit of a mockery of our demand for better homes”.

She added: “Why ask for 30 per cent if they can offer 12 per cent and end up on 20 per cent, why can’t we stand firm on 30 per cent?”

The council report states that a “fully compliant scheme was unlikely to be viable” as there are substantial “abnormal costs” identified, including those related to “increased design costs of buildings” and an extended access road into the site.

It adds: “Notwithstanding this, your officers concluded that the scheme could deliver more than the level of affordable homes previously being proposed.”

Also speaking at the meeting, Cllr John Nock observed that the planned development would look “rather more interesting” than similar projects because of the 10 different property types on offer.

Members of the committee voted unanimously in favour of approving the plan, subject to various additional conditions largely relating to construction and highway restrictions.