The proposals from Urban Group York Ltd would have seen the properties brought to a plot of grassland at Cliff Hill which sits on the Northern edge of the village. The application, previously branded an “environmental disaster” by a ward councillor, had already been deferred once so that more details could be provided to the Strategic Planning Committee. The committee had requested further information about the plans to stabilise the site given its coal mining past.
” Another resident, Jack Little, said: “I am concerned that this application includes a plan to remediate the site by way of coal extraction but has no substantial detail of how this will be achieved. It will in effect be an open cast coal mine in the centre of the village and bordered on three sides by existing properties.