Plans for 3,500 new homes to be built at Heronby near York

Escrick Park Estate has shared fresh plans for the new community, Heronby, on land west of Escrick, between Selby and York.

It comes after an early masterplan for Heronby was drawn up as part of the former Selby Local Plan process in 2021, under Selby District Council. North Yorkshire Council later halted work on a fresh Local Plan for Selby after it came to power and the targets for new houses trebled in the county.

Heronby had been earmarked as a key development to deliver long-term housing growth needs for the area up to 2040. 

But North Yorkshire Council’s executive members were told in February 2024 that due to concerns raised about the highways impact of the new settlement, the proposals should be removed from the plan and further consultation undertaken.

It meant the process for the Heronby site stalled, but the Escrick Park Estate said the plans remained on the table.

The estate has now revealed that steps are being taken to prepare for a new planning application for Heronby.

Plans for the Heronby development, located between York and Selby (Image: Supplied)

If successful, homes would be ready by 2031 with the total 3,500 properties built over 30 years, along with two primary schools and one secondary school, according to the Heronby website.

There would also be 47 hectares of country park, a 30 per cent biodiversity net gain and the development would generate £1 billion of construction value for the local economy, the plans said.

Beilby Forbes-Adam, from Escrick Park Estate, said it remains “committed to creating a new community for the county”, in response to North Yorkshire’s housing shortage.

Beilby Forbes-Adam, from Escrick Park Estate (Image: Supplied)

He said that two years after the plans stalled, “we are moving closer to being ready to submit an outline application”.

But Mr Forbes-Adam said the estate wants to hear what “potential future residents of Heronby would like to see” before the planning application is submitted to the council.

“We welcome the views of people of all ages, but we do particularly want to encourage younger people to join the conversation about what Heronby should be, about what it could mean to them,” he said.

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In the meantime, he said an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping request has been submitted to North Yorkshire Council as part of the planning process.

This is a formal step asking the council’s officers to consider what should be included in an environment statement which would be submitted as part of a planning application.

While an EIA scoping request sits on the council’s planning portal in the same way as a planning application, it is not an application in itself.

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