The long awaited Housing Development Plan from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has now been published and can be examined on the planning web site. I have read through the documents, save you the effort!
There are no surprises I don't think, Grassington looks to have an allocation of 30 new properties earmarked, while Linton Village has none, and I presume this includes the school site. Cracoe, Threshfield, Kettlewell and other smaller but no less interesting dales villages do have an allocation of varying numbers of new houses.
There is a representation process available and comments are sought both for support of a particular scheme or opposition.
As is usual the emphasis will be on affordable housing, with the added rule that homes should be for local people, never really sure how in a democracy this stands up, but there you are.
This plan may be adopted or not, I think there will be dissenters within both camps.
What is of concern to uses of this web site of course is the fact, at least as far as I can tell; the school site escapes any plans for housing. I say as far as I can tell, because there are a lot of words to wade through to understand for certain what the planners are thinking. People will be aware that the school site still has an planning application as a training or residential educational establishment still on the table and has been approved, but planning applications are finite, and are time limited.
Is this a good or bad thing? A lot has been said by various people about what should be accomplished with the school, childrens centre, respite home, dissabled, outward bound use, the options suggested by laymen, casual observers and may I say, ex pupils are varied, wide, and in some cases quite fancyfull! The facts are that the school should never have been sold in the manner that it was, we have the shortsighted, short term fixing of Bradford Council to thank for that decision. They have been monumental in making crass decisions for Bradford over the years, and continue to do so even today! The facts are well known as to the reasons why the site is in the state that it continues to be in. However, I have some sympathy with the various owners since closure. We have to understand and fully recognise, that it cannot at this stage be saved, in the form it was, as most people knew it. While a lot of people would love to see it restrored to the way it was before it closed, it simply is not going to happen. I would like to see some new use for the site, one that could provide some sort of facility, something that may provide a contribution to the Dales economy, and if that includes, housing, timeshare, caravan site, then I think it high time that this was accepted. What looks worse, the delapidated and dangerous sad state it is in now, or some useful alternative productive use that may regenerate a much loved area back to life.
