A LARGE new development of 161 homes in Pickering has been rejected by Ryedale District Council (RDC).

At a meeting of the authority’s planning committee last Wednesday, members unanimously refused the Persimmon Homes planning application for a site off Firthland Road.

The plan featured a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes on the 6.14 hectare site, which is currently a series of five fields.

The latest revisions to the application indicated that 103 of the homes would be for the open market while 58 would be so-called “affordable homes”, and the applicant argued that the development would help with housing issues in the town.

“This proposal over-provides on affordable housing,” he said, adding that as part of the development about 3,000 trees would be planted, as well as permanent habitat for barn owls and amphibians.

But RDC planning officers had recommended refusal for two key reasons.

The first was the fact that the site “is not allocated for residential use in the Development Plan nor in the emerging Development Plan”.

The plan, which is part of the so-called Ryedale Plan, is a document which sets out site-specific land allocations for a number of land uses, in order to make sure that local development requirements are met.

It was submitted to the Government in March and will be the subject of a public examination in the coming months.

The second reason for refusal was that, according to officers, “the proposal would result in substantial harm to the hedgerows and their setting which make up the historic strip fields which are on this site. This would result in substantial harm to the significance of a non-designated heritage asset and harm to the setting of Pickering”.

During discussions, councillors raised other general issues about large developments in Ryedale’s towns, and their impact on infrastructure.

Cllr Mike Potter said: “The full sewage network in Pickering is becoming increasingly under pressure.

“There’s been no physical expansion of sewage works since the mid-1970s. Same with Malton.

“I have very great concerns that with untreated sewage going into the Internal Drainage Board ditch network, there is a clear problem with sewage network provision.”

But planning officer Gary Housden said that Yorkshire Water, the company which is in charge of sewage systems, had raised no objection to the application.