Scarcroft Village Development Plan

A centre for our village

A chance to have a centre for ScarcroftThe huge expansion of our village being

imposed on us gives an unexpected consequence.

We have the opportunity to develop a centre before the infill of houses in every nook and cranny prevents this

The benefit of local amenities will help existing residents and future ones.

Any centre might be used as a lever to limit ribbon development along the A58.

Where?A specific discussion on this question

resulted in general agreement that the area between The New Inn and the Village Hall was an obvious choice.

The YEB site is a possible alternative.

An ideaI would like to show a few slides as a basis

for discussion.

May I start with an historical perspective?

1900 years agoThe Roman VI and IX Legions were

responsible for peace and security in our area.

The following slide shows an archive photo of Legio VI in Spain having been given the news they were to be transferred to Newton Kyme.

The reason the Centurion looks unhappy is he misheard the posting as New Wortley instead of Newton Kyme.

Scarcroft was an important Roman road junction.

Two roads embraced the village and a third going to Mamvcivm (Manchester) from Calcaria (Tadcaster) and Evbracvm (York)appeared to split from the Calcaria - Verbeia (Ilkley) road within our boundary.

A positive Clapham Junction

Ordnance Survey Roman Britain

Ordnance Survey Roman Britain

Modern Ordnance Survey map

Modern Ordnance Survey mapTwo possible sites for our centre

A centre should be a focus for the village with a meeting place and shops

•I would propose a cafe overlooking a village green as the centre piece.

• At either side specialist shops. Baker, Butcher, Newsagent, Pharmacy etc.

•Behind (not seen from the front) a mini-supermarket with adequate parking.

•I would call this a hammer head layout

•I can only see this happening if a supermarket chain is involved. Waitrose rather than Lidl.

•The specialist shops could be run in partnership with a local shop keeper but have the buying power and support of the supermarket. Without this viability would be a problem.

I have superimposed a layout of the building on a Google map format To give an idea of size.

The unit is 50% bigger than the new mini Tesco at Oakwood.

Google Earth map Building approximate size

Now for the final sketch

Following from my Roman theme I would like the front elevation to look something like this –albeit perhaps a little less splendid.

What do you think?

Malcolm Lobley April 2012