These images show how a brand new community could look when it is built near York.
Heronby would be a village created at Escrick, and is the vision of Escrick Park Estate.
The estate has started to draw up a masterplan for a new community on the land off the A19 between York and Selby, earmarked for housing in the Selby Local Plan.
Partners include Brooks Murray and Turnberry Consulting, which have both been involved in the development of several acclaimed mixed-use communities in the UK, including Tornagrain and Chapelton in Scotland.
The Heronby masterplan envisages a community of just over 4,000 homes on a site of around 200 hectares.
The site is outside the green belt, has good access to services and employment, and is almost entirely within Flood Zone 1 which has the least likelihood of flooding.
Alongside the masterplan, the Estate will support, “and where possible facilitate”, the construction of a new bypass, helping to alleviate many of the existing traffic issues in the village of Escrick.
‘Affordable and green’
Integral to the vision is “a walkable community with a mix of affordable and open-market homes, set within green spaces for recreation and sport, alongside business premises and schools”.
Heronby would be based around a high street and market square, and there would also be new neighbourhood centres offering facilities close to homes.
This approach would create a healthy, happy community, and would internalise journeys, a key to the pursuit of environmental sustainability at Heronby.
Beilby Forbes Adam from the Estate, said: “For more than 350 years, Escrick Park Estate has played a key role in shaping the built and natural landscape of the area.
“As we look forward to the years ahead, we realise there is a pressing need to provide good quality, attractive housing which people can afford and in an environmentally sustainable way.
“But we do not want to build a faceless, rootless dormitory village with an absence of community and a fixation on the car.
“Having seen what can be achieved by estates which are, like us, rooted in their communities, we are determined to ensure that we plan and build a Yorkshire village fit for the 21st century – a place where anyone would be proud to live and work.”
The plan includes maintaining and improving Heron Wood, which sits within the site, as well as planting more trees.
Mr Forbes Adam said: “Heronby will take many years to deliver. Our plans are still at an early stage and we would like to start a conversation with local people, sharing ideas about what Heronby could deliver and how it could benefit its neighbours as well as its residents.”
You can find out more and feedback at the Heronby website.