Sir – What will it take?

At what point will Craven District Council stop granting planning permissions for development in central Skipton with no parking provisions?

There is a planning application currently out to consultation for Eller House, opposite B&M’s store on Broughton Road. There are to be eight flats over a retail wine warehouse.

The plans propose that, for the flats, there should be no parking places whatsoever – the rationale being that this is a very central site, that the residents are of a type – listed as families, young couples, and first-time buyers – unlikely to own a car, and that if they have a car, they will buy a parking permit for the town centre car parks.

I will not be alone in finding this rationale implausible.

Should these new residents happen to own cars and decide not to buy a parking permit, where will they put their cars? There is absolutely no capacity available close to these flats for even a small increase in on-street parking demand – day or night — certainly not in the immediate Hall Croft/Brook Street/Granville Street/Bright Street area.

This area – like the major part of Skipton now – the Regent area, around Devonshire Street, Otley Street, even up Shortbank Road, and the lower parts of Rockwood and the Raikes is close to paralysed by on-street parking, and the resulting to-and-fro of vehicles searching for a space.

What powers through the planning system do North Yorkshire County Council and CDC have to control this? There are no minimum standards for the number of parking places required. CDC still has no Local Plan, which might perhaps have given some protection for residents.

Loss of amenity for neighbours is a valid ground for refusing a planning application – but to date CDC has not seen fit to accept that nuisance from increased on-street parking means loss of amenity for those residents affected. Nor has CDC been prepared to date to challenge developers’ Transport Assessments which gloss over harm to residents’ amenity.

What will it take before planners and councillors take note? The town centre to seize up? Families and businesses to start deserting the town?

Jane Houlton, Skipton