HAMBLETON District Council never fails to disappoint. Its November 12 planning committee meeting, which including Brompton Councillor Isobel Sanderson, unanimously approved the North Northallerton Development (D&S Times, Nov 20).

The officer’s report said that the council had received only 15 letters of objection from the public. One member of my family scrutinised the plans, found more and more faults and sent 37 letters.

The Internal Drainage Board predicts that the raising of land for the development would cause significant surface water flooding to the east of Northallerton Road. My Northallerton Road house benefits from the topography of the surrounding field, which is lower and like a shallow bowl. Surface water drains away from my house (and those of my neighbours) into this bowl, protecting them from flooding. My family’s main concern is that the new houses are to be built on ground raised by the developers to enhance their houses’ flood protection. This could reverse the direction of run-off water, causing flooding of my house.

The new alignment of the link road chosen by the developer in its planning application does not accord with that in the masterplan of 2011. This new route may or may not give the traffic mitigation required in all phases. A 2007 report warned: “Although the Link Road reduces the congestion of the level crossing, the future year of 2021 is likely to be worse than the existing situation.”

Affordable housing levels are a concern. The council’s Local Plan requirement is 40 per cent; the developers’ offer is 11 to 12 per cent; the District Valuer thinks it should be about 16 to 18 per cent. Inadequate and unacceptable!

The option to develop in the Brompton Gap was preferred by Northallerton councillors for political reasons. They thought it would provoke less opposition than elsewhere. The council’s planners reported accordingly, and the independent inspectors approved the preferred option as having sufficient traffic mitigation and with a £10m “soft loan” it was thought to be viable, providing the 40 per cent affordable housing. It has proved to be a bad choice.

Fifty-two years ago, the county surveyor predicted that in 40 to 50 years time, Northallerton would be totally traffic gridlocked. His scheme included a railway bridge at Low Gates and bypass routes to the north and south, but it has never come to pass and the council has allowed his southern bypass route to be totally built over and little remains of the northern route.

My conclusion is that Hambleton council, having created enormous congestion in Northallerton by allowing so much development over the last 50 years, is digging itself into deeper trouble by approving the North Northallerton development. Unacceptably disappointing.

SH McKee, Brompton, Northallerton