Plans have been submitted for 64 homes to be erected on the edge of a village near York in a Green Belt location.

Mulgrave Developments wants to build the houses and bungalows on a 2.7ha site north of North Lane, Wheldrake, which consists of two small paddocks and a garden.

The proposed development consists of a range of 1-4 bed homes, including detached, semis and terraced properties.

Some 30% of these would be affordable, and using the same material palette and design details as the market housing.

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The market homes would consist of 18 -2-bed, 17 3-bed and 16 4-bed homes.

The affordable units would be a mix of social rented, shared ownership (11 in total) and five starter homes.

Planning documents also said: “A large area of public open space is proposed centrally within the development which will create an attractive outlook for the properties and create a focal point to the development.

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“It is proposed that the area of open space will provide a pond, and be planted with a mixture of general meadow mix and wildflower mix and will have a native hedge running along the edge to separate the area from the driveway. Large amounts of tree planting is also proposed.”

A new junction would be created from North Lane to the west of the existing field access. The existing field access will be closed

The application notes the lack of a Local Plan and a five year housing supply in York, also citing comments from politicians and housing experts in recent decades about the ‘housing crisis’ and a need for more housebuilding.

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“The Council failures to produce a site-specific element of the Development Plan and the associated allocations and a detailed Green Belt has worsened the housing crisis in York.”

City of York Council, it also said, needs to address this by “facilitating the building of new housing” and refusal would be counter to government policy to arrest the housing crisis.

The application continued: “It is evident that there is a housing crisis, and this is even more pronounced around York than in many other areas of the UK, and as such it is our view, that this constitutes very special circumstances [to allow building in the Green Belt].”

Furthermore, the ‘modest’ scheme is proposed for land with ‘no special characteristics’ and its development would not harm the openness of the Green Belt. The site had been allocated for housing before and was only removed as a draft allocation as members believed housing needs could be met elsewhere.

The application concluded the developer had assessed the harm to the Green Belt and other polices relating to the site, determining it has demonstrated the very special circumstances needed for allow planning permission to be granted.