Easingwold: Plans for new food shop, petrol station and homes in Yorkshire town

Hambleton District Council’s planning committee will on Thursday (Mar 16) consider fresh proposals for a major mixed use development on a 20-acre greenfield site off York Road, Easingwold. Jomast Developments’ application includes a 1,917 sqm food store with some 97 standard customer parking bays with an additional eight disabled and 11 parent and toddler bays.

It also features plans for the only fuel station between Thirsk and Shipton, north of York, 70 family homes, 45 flats and 51 bungalows for “senior living”, a three-storey 60-bedroom care home, NHS medical facilities and hospital beds, green walking routes, public open space and play areas.

While similar plans have been approved over the last decade, the scheme is being considered at the final meeting of the committee before the authority is replaced by North Yorkshire Council next month as it is in the countryside, not supported by national policies and not allocated for development.

A planning officers’s report to the committee states Hambleton council’s recently approved Local Plan does “not support large scale development of land that is not allocated”.

The latest scheme has generated few objections or letters of support from residents. However, in documents submitted with the application, the developers said local community consultation showed “overwhelming support for the development and the proposed uses of the site”.

The officer’s report states the limited food retail provision in Easingwold and “leakage” of trade to places such as Thirsk and York had continued for many years in the market town.

It states: “Provision of a food store is needed to reduce the leakage and increase accessibility to food shopping for the growing population of Easingwold and those in the surrounding area. The need can be considered to be pressing.

“Provision of a fuel station is needed as no provision exists in the town. The absence of a fuel station in the town is considered to give rise to a pressing need to serve not just the town but also the surrounding communities.”

While the NHS has indicated an interest in a potential healthcare development, plans to create a care home includes eight beds for York and Scarborough NHS Trust to deliver Step-Up and Step-Down Care as an alternative to acute hospital treatment.

The proposal would provide a larger facility to replace the 32-bedroom Alne Care Home with a new purpose-built setting. A consultants’ report submitted with the plans states the provision of bungalows and age restricted homes in Easingwold is low relative to the “astonishingly” high proportion of older people in the area.

Recommending the scheme be approved, the officer’s report states: “It has been found that the outline proposals show a scheme that could bring benefits to the community through the provision of services and facilities and job opportunities. The impacts on the environment are relatively significant through the loss of agricultural land, but that land does not hold special importance to the setting of the town or countryside.”