Appendix A

What is The Better Wetherby Partnership

During the past three years in particular, there have been proposals for substantial new housing in the Wetherby District which includes the villages of Kirk Deighton, Collingham and Linton. This has led to considerable levels of public opposition being expressed.

These developer led housing schemes have emerged from a range of landowner interests promoted predominantly through Leeds City Council Local Plan proposals. Because Wetherby is at the edge of the Leeds City boundary some of these proposals are on land, whilst geographically associated with Wetherby, lie within the Borough of Harrogate which in turn is preparing its own Local Plan. Services such as for example refuse/recycling in our District, whilst predominantly provided by Leeds City Council, are also provided by Harrogate Borough Council in the case of some parts of Wetherby lying within the Harrogate boundary and Kirk Deighton village. To further complicate matters whilst Leeds City is responsible for schools, social services and highway management for most of Wetherby, North Yorkshire County Council is responsible for those services within Harrogate Borough and therefore on Wetherby's doorstep.

It became clear to many concerned about the potential harm these schemes could pose on the good sense of community engagement in our District, that these three authorities were not cooperating in determining their approach to these housing proposals. As a result, early this year a number of local groups, representing a substantial cross section of community engagement in the Wetherby District, agreed to combine with Wetherby Town Council and Kirk Deighton Parish Council to form a new voluntary organisation - The Better Wetherby Partnership. Some of the organisations who have joined the Partnership had already taken issue on some of the housing proposals.

Under our logo, Better Wetherby, Promoting and Protecting our Future, we have set ourselves the task of representing our District on housing proposals emerging from planning applications or Local Plans. We have decided to acknowledge that Wetherby cannot and should not turn its face away from welcoming new homes. Our concern is that we stop the wrong kind of housing being built on the wrong sites; that more thought must be given to providing a wider choice of homes to possibly rent or be more affordable.

To Date our Partners are :

Wetherby Town Council For more information contact us on : Wetherby Ward Councillors on Leeds City Council [email protected] Kirk Deighton Parish Council Wetherby and Kirk Deighton Countryside Partnership Wetherby Civic Society Wetherby and District Churches Together Wetherby and District University of the Third Age [U3A] Wetherby High School Governors