Local councillors and residents were taken by surprise when a poster board appeared at the junction of Sim Balk Lane and Tadcaster Road advertising “another development opportunity by Gateway Developments.”

The poster helpfully displays a web address – www.gatewayyork.co.uk

The website of the developers, Gateway, sets out an ambition to develop four sites – two in Dringhouses either side of Sim Balk Lane, and two in Bishopthorpe on Church Lane and Copmanthorpe Lane.

In Dringhouses, the developers have identified 25 hectares of Green Belt land either side of Sim Balk Lane, highlighted in red on the map below, which they claim is suitable for “mixed use development comprising of residential, care home, hotel and leisure.” Neither site is earmarked for development in York’s emerging Local Plan.

The developers envisage that these two sites could accommodate 247 new homes, or could lend themselves to a mixed-use development, claiming that “this site would offer a great opportunity for a hotel in close proximity of the sites next to the college, similarly providing scope and expansion of the college facilities.”

The developers state that “the site, due to its current land uses, does not have an effect upon the historic visual character of the city of York and will enhance the surrounding developed sites with employment opportunities and facilities.”

No mention is made of the impact that any development would have on an already congested highways network in this part of the city, or how these impacts might be mitigated.

Local councillors will update residents as and when we learn more about the developers’ plans.