Updated plans for a proposed 3,500-home community between York and Selby went on public display in Escrick today and received a mixed reaction from people who live nearby.
Heronby, if it gets planning permission, would be built on land owned by** Escrick Park Estate**.
The developers say the scheme would provide homes alongside infrastructure including schools, play areas, shops and leisure facilities.
They particularly wanted younger people struggling to get onto the housing ladder — described as the “limbo generation” — to give their views.
But an action group called Halt Heronby, which includes residents from Riccall, Escrick, Stillingfleet and Deighton, as well as parish councils and local landowners, claims important questions about traffic, infrastructure and the deliverability of the development remain unanswered.
Meanwhile, one resident of Deighton, Lesley Hardisty, explained why she was concerned about the influx of traffic from the new development: “The cars in the morning are queued back from the Deighton entrance right up to Crockey Hill to get out.
“Then it’s slow going to the designer outlet. When you get there, you can’t get into town because the Fulford Road is absolutely stationary, and cars trying to come off the slip on the A64 from Tadcaster end up making that a single track road near the junction.
“So what concerns me is safety, and how are they going to actually deal with the increased amount of traffic from this massive housing estate?
“There’s no way that we can cope in York with that.”
Rob Daniel is a local farmer and gave us his opinion: “I appreciate there’s a need for more housing, but I also think there’s an awful lot of redundant housing. There’s a lot of empty houses in the towns and villages.
“I think there’s a lot of scope to utilise that before we go and build huge areas on greenfield land.
“I don’t know what we can do, we can let them know our thoughts when it gets to the councils and say that we are opposed to it and don’t think it’s a good thing for the area.
“That’s all we can do, really.”
LISTEN to a YorkMix Radio Sunday Late Show Interview with Beilby Forbes Adam, from Escrick Park Estate, who talks through the plan for Heronby. Click here
Paul Holt lives in nearby Stillingfleet: “If it’s a nice mix (of houses), okay, that’s a positive. But the thing that stands out to me is there are acres of nice open fields. There are village communities where, if you want to tag a little bit of housing on, fine, but the area here is not made for a large town with hundreds of cars.
“And as always happens on all these builds, and I’m not bothered what anybody says, the houses start, and all the accessories, whether it be schools, roads, shops, doctors, they’re the last thing that crosses the mind.
“I think when you look at how busy the A19 is, the road itself is chock a block for hours every day. Unless there’s a brand new road built, it’s a non-starter for me.
“It’s three thousand plus houses? If there’s four people in every household, that’s fourteen thousand people.”
The developers have previously stressed that the project would be delivered over a long period rather than seeing thousands of homes constructed at once.
The project team says work carried out since the original proposals were unveiled in 2021 has helped shape the latest plans, and feedback from residents, councils and other organisations will be considered before the outline application is finalised.
Beilby Forbes Adam, from Escrick Park Estate, said: “This will be a new North Yorkshire community, so we are keen to hear from young people who are likely to be the first people to move to Heronby.
“We want to hear their ideas so hopefully we can shape the new community to meet their needs.
“They have been called the ‘limbo generation’ because they are stuck in limbo and can’t find a place where they can get on the housing ladder.”
He added: “Heronby won’t solve North Yorkshire’s housing crisis on its own, and it certainly won’t mean thousands of new homes arriving in just a couple of years. But it will set high standards and show what can be achieved by a rural estate such as Escrick Park when it comes to quality placemaking.
“It won’t be simply housing. We will also deliver the infrastructure — the schools, play areas, retail outlets, leisure and other facilities — that people need every day.
“We’re proposing 20% affordable housing. That will be a mix of social rent, affordable rent, and intermediates. At the moment, that balance, that split, hasn’t been ironed out, and that will come in due course in discussions with the local authority.”
And he had also been talking about the issue of the A19.
“We’ve been working with highways consultants for several years now. In essence, it’s a series of interventions up the A19, which will be delivered as the scheme comes out to ensure we mitigate all the effects.
“That includes, roundabouts around Escrick, Crockey Hill, improvements to the A19/A64 junction, and also roundabouts to the south at Riccall, so there’ll be a number of interventions.”