After months of apparent inactivity, there is an important new development in the long-running saga over Avant Homes' scheme for new houses in Bishop Monkton.

The Parish Council and the village action group, BMAG, have expressed concern about a potential new plan apparently mooted by North Yorkshire Highways for dealing with drainage issues related to the planned development.

The idea is that surface water from the proposed sixty-home development near the Moor Road and Knaresborough Road junction should be routed into the existing surface water drains on Hungate, rather than into existing Yorkshire Water drains elsewhere.

This plan has not been explicitly proposed by Highways but BMAG and Parish Councillors are assuming this on the basis of a letter they have received which refers to the use of existing drains. Yorkshire Water have rejected previous proposal from the developer to use their surface water drains on basis of capacity, so it seems likely that the possibility of using the Highways drains along Hungate is now being actively pursued.

It has understood that NYC Highways have been in discussions with the developers to try to reach an agreement on this plan. This process explains why there's been no apparent progress in the NYC Planning Department reaching a recommendation on Avant's revised scheme. The original deadline for comments on the scheme was last November and the target date for a council decision was in mid-January.

'Bishop Monkton Today' has approached NYC Planners for their comments on this but so far there's been no response.

BMAG and the Parish Council met earlier this week to discuss a range of planning issues and they agreed that the PC would write expressing their concerns to both Highways and the planning team about the latest apparent proposals.

If you want to understand these concerns in more detail they are detailed below-

· The proposal to use highways drains in itself is concerning as the existing Highways drain is built to serve as surface water drain for Hungate Lane. However the slope and gradient of Moor Road means a large part of the surface water from the Moor Road currently flows without any attenuation/slowing down before reaching the cross roads and the gulleys of the Highways drains. So this is already bringing in a wider catchment area of surface water. There is hence a risk of increasing floods by allowing the attenuated surface water from the Avant site onto the Highways drains.

· Additionally, the large catchment all along Moor Road means the surface water also brings along large quantities of silt and sludge. This is already an issue highlighted within Avant's submission surveying the Highways drains. The combination of the excess silt and sludge would mean there is heavy reliance of maintenance of the drains.

· The proposals need to be supplemented by hydrological analysis of the large surface water catchment along Moor Road, together with attenuated surface water from the site. The analysis must inform of any further risks to flooding and the extent of flooding. This is crucial because the highways drain straight into the Beck.

· All the other Drains (by Meadowcroft and by Hungate) are owned by YW. YW have already declared they do not have any more capacity in the first submission.

Meanwhile, the meeting between the PC and BMAG also agreed that it would be starting to raise awareness of the consultation process due to start soon on the new NYC Local Plan. Earlier this year 'Bishop Monkton Today' reported the publication of a list of sites identified by landowners and developers for possible future development. The list included six new sites in Bishop Monkton. The issue will be raised by BMAG at the Annual Parish Meeting in May.

The Parish Council and BMAG also agreed to continue to meet and collaborate on a range of planning issues affecting the village.