Updated and refreshed on 10 January 2026.
Simon Thackray submission to the Planning Inspector Mr David M H Rose and interested parties.
Appeal Reference: APP/U2750/W/25/3371863
Planning Application ZE24/01683/MOUT re Land off Rainbow Lane, Malton, North Yorkshire for 200 houses.
Copy of the submission sent to Beth Evans of Freeths on 9 January 2026
I explained my idea for building a new village in Ryedale in a letter of 2018 to the then Ryedale District Council Head of Planning, Mr Gary Housden. Today, almost seven and a half years on, with unrealistic government housebuilding targets causing chaos and spreading fear in communities across the land, I would like to remind decision makers that simply dumping new houses into existing settlements is not necessarily the best solution. It is not necessary (or acceptable) to blight our existing towns with more traffic congestion and air and sewage pollution, when there are creative alternative options available. To those with the ability to think creatively.
A new village.
Head of Planning
Ryedale District Council
Ryedale House
Malton
YO17 7HH
16 May 2018
Dear Mr Housden,
Malton and Norton: Proposals to reduce congestion and improve connectivity:
Please find below my additional comments on the answers I provided on the tick box questionnaire / consultation response form on the RDC website. Before I expand on the proposed interventions in the consultation, I want to share with you my idea for a new village for Ryedale. I know Mr David Lloyd Williams has long held similar views and, whilst our approach and our tastes differ, I think the basic idea and principal is not only sound but also essential. [NB: I have made minor changes to my original letter of 2018 for the sake of clarity and to reflect my better understanding of the sewage and air pollution issues blighting the towns of Malton and Norton.]
My ideas below link my reading of a book about Pickering town (The Evolution of an English Town by Gordon Home, 1905) and a visit to Amsterdam in 2013. I have taken a keen interest in the flooding issues in Ryedale in recent years and spent time researching the problems of both sewage and air pollution in Malton. The following ideas address all those subjects in a way that I believe would help resolve many of the big-ticket issues facing our towns.
Malton and Norton are increasingly affected by air pollution, caused by HGV and other traffic that is unable to gain direct access on and off the A64. The current situation is unacceptable.
Several years ago [in 2013] I stayed in a B&B on the island of IJburg in Amsterdam. IJburg is a new, man-made, island just outside the city that was constructed by depositing layer upon layer of sand into the water, which was then allowed to settle for several years before construction began. IJburg is also home to spectacular floating homes, and the entire place is connected to the city of Amsterdam by a new bridge and tram and, of course, bicycles. Colourful floating homes are a tourist attraction but not the main cause of my enthusiasm.
IJburg is a new settlement comprising a mix of social and privately owned housing, with rents for the social housing set at a similar level to market rents payable in Ryedale. Many of the homes, like the B&B in which I stayed, are self-built. The island has a school and, being surrounded by water, the residents enjoy the recreational use of the water i.e. there are sailing dinghies, rowing boats and young children can be seen diving from a small foot bridge and swimming in the water, whilst their parents enjoy a drink or snack at a waterside café.
IJburg didn’t happen overnight, and was not without its problems and detractors, but it exists as an exciting example of what can be done where there is the will and the vision. In complete contrast to recent developments in Malton and Norton, and Ryedale as a whole, the houses on IJburg are a mix of contemporary styles and, in many instances, a riot of colour. The development is supported by new infrastructure which, I believe, is the key to the Ryedale new village project.
An example of joined up thinking about place and communication was printed on the reverse of my ticket to a concert at the spectacular Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam; the cost of the ticket included a free tram ride home. No worries about drink-driving or parking the car or booking a taxi. It is such a simple incentive and makes it easy to opt for the greener option. Three of the musicians onstage that night in Amsterdam had all played in Brawby. The late Alan Tomlinson performed a trombone solo in the Yorkshire Water sewer in Brawby in November 2013.
The experience of this vibrant, cool place, and the ease of movement between the new settlement and the centre of Amsterdam, has fuelled my thinking about the pros and cons of building a new village on the edge of a floodplain in Ryedale. Most people choke at the mention of building houses on, or in, or near a floodplain, until they learn about IJburg.
The future inhabitants of the new Ryedale lakeside village would not be the first lake-dwelling community to live in Ryedale – just the first for several thousand years, as this extract from the book ‘The Evolution of an English Town’ shows. (‘Being the story of the ancient town of PICKERING in Yorkshire from Prehistoric times up to the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred & 5’ by Gordon Home, reprinted by Blackthorn Press).
“A most interesting discovery of lake-dwellings was made in 1893 by Mr James M. Mitchelson of Pickering, but although the relics brought to light are numerous, no one has yet been able to make any definite statement as to the period to which they belong. The Costa Beck, a stream flowing from the huge spring at Keld Head, on the west side of Pickering, was being cleaned out for drainage purposes at a spot a little over two miles from the town, when several pieces of rude pottery were thrown on to the bank. These excited Mr Mitchelson’s interest and at another occasion his examination revealed more pottery and mixed up with the fragments were the bones of animals. Some piles forming two parallel rows about 4 feet apart were also discovered crossing the stream at right angles to its course.
The diagram given here [not included] shows the position of the piles as far as they were revealed in one of the excavations. It also shows their presumed continuation, but no reliance can be placed on anything but those dug out and indicated with a solid black spot. The piles were made of oak, birch and alder, with very rough pointed ends, and they measured from 6 to 10 inches in diameter. Three other rows cross the Costa in the same neighbourhood separated by a few hundred yards and as they lie at right angles to the stream, which there forms a concave bend, they appear to converge upon one point. This would be what may roughly be termed an island between the Costa and a large drain where water in ancient times probably accumulated or flowed.
There can therefore be little doubt that the island was the home of prehistoric lake-dwellers who constructed their homes on rude platforms raised above the water or marshy ground by means of piles after the fashion of the numerous discoveries in Switzerland, and the present habits of the natives of many islands in the Pacific.” [And IJburg, Amsterdam in 2018]
My interest in the concept of the building of a new village in Ryedale is spurred-on by the fact that Malton and Norton have an immovable and constrained road network that, beyond minor tinkering at junctions, is fixed. Our towns are congested today and will be worse tomorrow if new developments are approved and built out. Malton and Norton and Old Malton are FULL, thanks to the housing distribution policies of the Ryedale Local Plan – the most damaging document ever published by Ryedale District Council.
Malton and, Norton and Old Malton suffer from flooding events that are occurring with increasing regularity due to the impact of Climate Change, and it is clear to me that the advantages of building a new village on the edge of Old Malton are unique.
Not only would a new village deliver new housing, but it would also help resolve existing problems in Malton and Norton in terms of flooding, traffic congestion and air and sewage pollution. It would do all this AND relieve the pressure on overwhelmed Malton and Norton infrastructure. I can only see gains for Ryedale people and the residents of Malton and Norton and Old Malton. I have outlined a few of the benefits below.
Imagine a new village built on the banks of a reborn Lake Pickering, around the floodplain in the vicinity of Espersykes / Brambling Fields.
The land north of Old Malton is the original bed of Lake Pickering and a natural place to store and a regulate the flow of water. It happens to a limited extent already.
The location is a natural floodplain which would be adapted to be both a natural and engineered water storage facility, designed to regulate and ‘slow the flow’ of the River Derwent through Norton and Malton to relieve the pressure on the Malton sewerage and drainage systems during periods of sustained heavy rainfall (upstream). This water storage lake would be linked to natural flood management schemes on agriculatural land further up stream. Hugely expensive and disruptive flooding events are becoming more frequent and more severe in Malton and Norton and the current practice of pumping raw sewage into the River Derwent as a means of flood alleviation must end.
Read about the sewage pollution of the River Derwent
The floodplain location would be both a lake and a wetland nature reserve. The water level and discharge rate would be attenuated depending on the need to slow the flow, or increase the rate of discharge when appropriate. The reborn Lake Pickering would be a new tourist destination and nature reserve.
Importantly, the new village would be served by new and effectual drainage and sewerage infrastructure.
The village would connect directly to the A64 via the Brambling Fields junction and also connected to Malton and Norton by an electric shuttle bus and, at certain times of the year, by river taxi.
The village would follow the lead of Costa Rica and be fossil fuel free. All building and houses would be ‘passive haus’ construction and built either on stilts at the water’s edge (floodplain) or on the newly constructed banks. There could, like IJburg, Amsterdam, be a new island. I envisage an Arts Centre in the centre of the lake (a play on words but putting Art at the heart of the village). There would be floating houses like the colourful floating homes of IJBurg. Whatever floats your boat…?
The island would be a mix of social and privately owned homes, built with ‘contemporary, colourful and innovative’ as the standard. Self-builders would be prioritised, and the artistic community actively encouraged to live there (I don’t think the artists I know would take much persuading). In fact, I think people would fall over themselves in the rush to live in such a vibrant and exciting, carbon neutral place. Cars would be electric only.
Electric bikes and scooters would be available 24 hours at both ends of the new and lit cycle route to the Railway Station and at the mid-point in Norton.
One of the best options, in my opinion, would be to build the new ‘second platform’ for the Malton railway station stop within walking distance of the new village and Brambling Fields. Do not build a new platform in the centre of Malton. Instead, encourage people to travel by electric shuttle bus to the new platform and leave their cars at home. Or park and ride at Brmabling Fields. Either way the direction of travel for commuters is out of town.
A new cycle route would incorporate a spectacular new cycle / footbridge over Norton level crossing (a variation of the new bridge proposed by Eden Blyth).
My vision is to see a new village built in Ryedale that is not car dependent and has properly working infrastructure and creativity at its heart. Air quality would be good, and supermarkets would deliver by electric vehicles. The new lake and nature reserve would be a new holiday destination and place of wildlife conservation. It would alleviate the impact of climate change (flooding), and improve the poor air quality in Malton and Norton. It would be a wonderful place to live.
Lake Pickering – twinned with IJburg, Amsterdam.
Build it and they will come!
NB: The building of new village will not remove the urgent need to provide new slip-roads on/off the A64 at the B1257 Broughton Road, and a new roundabout at Musley Bank. Currently HGV and other business traffic is unable to access the York Road Industrial Estate from the A64 bypass westbound. This forces businesses, including Yorkshire Water, to drive air polluting HGVs through our towns’ narrow streets to access the Malton industrial estates. This is bad for our businesses and bad for our residents.