Residents of a York suburb have reacted with concern after a planning application went in to turn part of a green space into a contractors’ compound for a year.
Holgate Dock is in Watson Street, by the railway bridge and the church. Under the proposal, a section of the dock would be taken over while work takes place at nearby St Paul’s Nursery.
The nursery is undertaking a major refurbishment project planned for 2024.
A woman who helps look after Hogate Dock says she thinks they should use a road instead.
Residents who live nearby say they will have an uninterrupted view of a building site rather than a green space.
The planning application says: “We have estimated the construction period for the works at the nursery to be in the order of 12 months from start on site to completion.
“St Paul’s Nursery will be temporarily relocated to an alternative site for the duration of
the refurbishment works.
“Due to the nature of the nursery site, the site layout and area of works there is no
space on the nursery site or immediately adjacent which is accessible by large
commercial vehicle to accommodate a site compound for site storage and delivery of
bulk materials.”
The nursery is located in St Paul’s Square which is a very narrow residential street with a residential parking permit scheme in place.
It has an alternative access to the rear via a footpath from Enfield Crescent – but that is only suitable for vehicles to part of its length.
If the scheme is approved, the green space would be part allocated as a contractors’ compound, “which is ideally located off Watson Street as an initial drop off for materials and deliveries”, documents state.
From the proposed Holgate Dock compound the materials and equipment could
then be transported to the nursery building via smaller vehicles which can negotiate the
narrow streets “with minimal disruption for residents of St Pauls Square, St Pauls
Terrace, Watson Street, Watson Terrace and Enfield Crescent”.
The compound will be segregated from the remaining area of Holgate Dock by
secure Heras fencing and will be used for delivery and storage only.
Grass protection matting will be installed to protect the ground from vehicle access and all surfaces will be made good on the completion of the project. The remaining area of Holgate Dock will remain fully accessible for use by the public.
You can read planning application and comment on it here.
Jules Fern, chair of the Holgate Community Garden told YorkMix:
“A couple of years ago, during lockdown, we had the same issue where a bit of work was done on the local school and the site was used to store skips and a lockup and still the ground has yet to recover from that!
“We don’t want to end up with the same problem again, we would just like some assurance that there will be a contribution towards putting things back to how they were.
“We raised thousands of pounds some seven or eight years ago to install land drains on the site because it became a quagmire.
“If we have heavy vehicles coming in and out of here and the likes of a storage unit for a year, the compaction is going to be severe.
“There just isn’t a lot of green space in this area. Why are we compromising what little we have?
“Why not put a bit of road aside as an alternative?”