More than 400 homes set for Rowntree factory site – but some fear traffic impact

More than 400 homes are set to be built on the site of the former Nestle Rowntree factory in York.

But concerns have been raised over the impact the scheme will have on traffic on Wigginton Road.

An outline planning application for the land at the Cocoa West site, off Wigginton Road, will be discussed at a meeting on Thursday.

The plans would see 118 homes and 307 apartments built at the site, as well as a crèche, community building, office block and convenience store.

Money for transport

A report prepared for members of the planning committee asks them to approve the 425-home application.

It recommends that, as a condition of the approval, the first residents should be offered £200 towards either bus pass or cycles to promote sustainable travel and that 20 per cent of the homes should be affordable.

However, one person responding to a consultation on the plans said: “The addition of so many new homes will make an extremely bad traffic situation even worse.”

Nearly hit by a motorbike

Another family with small children expressed similar concerns.

Already crossing Wigginton Road during busy periods was “fraught with danger”:

• Recently my eight-year-old daughter was almost hit by a motorbike overtaking the queue of traffic which stacks up from Crichton Bridge down Wigginton Road past the old disused entrance to Nestle.

  This will become the entry point to the new development. And with added vehicles coming out of the development including buses going through to Haxby Road our efforts crossing will become even more perilous.

  I’m afraid to say there is an accident waiting to happen if a suitable pedestrian crossing is not provided.
  

York Civic Trust also raised concerns about the impact on the junction between Wigginton Road and Crichton Avenue, saying “it is clear that the evening peak conditions are further worsened by the new proposal”.

The report says: “This scheme would generate 228 vehicular movements in the morning peak and 235 in the evening peak. When the remainder of Nestle South is factored in these increase to 336 and 343 respectively to be distributed between the two junctions (Haxby Road and Wigginton Road).”

But it adds that this is a “relatively small level of change” and there is already queueing at the Crichton Avenue junction at rush hour, so officers do not require any mitigation.

The application will be discussed at a meeting at West Offices on Thursday at 4.30pm.