THE recently retired president of the Supreme Court has added her name to a petition of more than 2,000 people objecting to a housing development on the outskirts of Richmond.

The Rt Hon the Baroness Brenda Hale of Richmond, a long-term resident of Richmond, is also patron of the Richmondshire Landscape Trust – a charity which owns, manages and protects significant pieces of land in the town, including Westfields pastures.

The new housing estate proposed by Zetland Estates would run alongside the medieval pastureland of Westfields – one of the town’s most popular open spaces – and push up against the world-famous Coast to Coast path as it approaches Richmond from the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

In a seven-point letter of objection to the planning application, she states: “There will be a strong sense of injustice that local people raised the money to buy the Westfield and the other land owned by the Richmondshire Landscape Trust in order to preserve its amenity for the town in perpetuity. This proposed development would have a seriously adverse impact upon that amenity.”

Lady Hale also highlights the fact that there is no housing need in the area for a development of this kind, which incorporates three-storey houses described by the applicant as a ‘development of distinction’.

She said: “Richmond already has an ample supply of land on which housing can be built. This proposed development of mainly large houses, with a very small proportion of affordable units, will not cater to the principal demand, which is for smaller units and for more affordable housing.”

In addition, Lady Hale points out that the site is outside of the town’s planning boundary; will have a serious adverse impact on the character of the surrounding landscape; and will have an inevitable impact upon biodiversity in the vicinity with the destruction of many mature trees and historic hedgerows.

More than 2,000 people have now signed a growing petition to say that they don’t want to see this idyllic rural landscape spoiled by the 30-strong housing development, with almost 300 individuals addressing their specific concerns to Richmondshire District Council.

Amongst them is Baroness Angela Harris of Richmond, who describes the development as ‘creeping urbanisation’.

She said: “The site is unsuitable for the numbers of homes involved and constitutes overdevelopment.

"It is also outside the stated building boundaries of the town, is on a raised area which can be seen from numerous places around the town and is detrimental to an historic area of natural beauty.”

The agents for Zetland Estates state that by raising the standard of design, the scheme has the ability to transform the lives of many people, contributing positively to the local community.

The application states: “We do hope the community can get behind this, rather than fight it, after all, we are continuing a pattern of development that our collective ancestors started at the bottom or Hurgill and Westfields 100 years ago."

This concern is supported by the Richmond and District Civic Society, who state: “The very high density of the housing is a huge over development of the site. The visual impact from Westfields will be detrimental to the enormously attractive surrounding area.”

Also against the development is Richmond Town Council: “This is inappropriate development in an area outside the settlement limits for Richmond which does not fit the character of the area and will have enormous consequences on Highway safety and in addition is contravening important core policies of Richmondshire District Council Planning.”

The fact that the site has spaces for 100 cars, (with many more visitor and service vehicles) is a point of particular concern for many people who fear that the increased volume of traffic will be dangerous on roads already struggling to cope. Hurgill Road in particular has known problems with speed and has poor sight lines where the two access points to the housing estate are proposed. Traffic trying to cut through to the Darlington Road side of town where all the schools are located will also put a lot of extra pressure on minor roads such as Sycamore Avenue, Maple Road and Quakers Lane.

The planning application is currently being considered by Richmondshire District Council and expected to go before a future meeting of the Planning Committee.

Comments can be made by email to: Jamie.reed@richmondshire.gov.uk or in writing to: The Planning Manager, Richmondshire District Council, Mercury House, Station Road, Richmond, DL10 4TA.

The community petition is hosted on Change.org under ‘Richmond Development Threat’.

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated North Yorkshire Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054