Plans for York's 3,339-home garden village at the former Elvington Airfield go to consultation from 19 October. What the Local Plan says it must include.
The first public look at the masterplan for Langwith Village, the biggest housing site in York’s Local Plan, is due this week. The garden village would put about 3,339 homes on land west of Elvington Lane, partly on the former Elvington Airfield, south-east of the city.
The Langwith Development Partnership, which brings together the promoters and the landowners, says the site is “a strategic location for a new standalone settlement” and that it is working with City of York Council and Homes England (Langwith Village).
The consultation dates
The partnership’s announcement, reported by the Yorkshire Post and Building on 14 October, gives these dates:
- Online: consultation materials on langwithvillage.com from Monday 19 October to Monday 30 November.
- In person: a drop-in at the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Halifax Suite, Tuesday 20 October, 2.30pm to 7.30pm, to see the plans and question the project team.
Updated 22 October: the consultation boards, FAQs, an interactive map and the feedback form are now online on the consultation page. They show a new A64 junction, a link road to the A1079 Hull Road and two primary schools. Our story on the roads and buses in the plans sets them against the Local Plan.
The partnership’s own timeline puts a design code in December 2026, to be submitted alongside an outline planning application to the council (project timeline). That application is where the formal right to comment, and the council’s decision, will come.
What the Local Plan says it must include
The masterplan is not starting from a blank sheet. The site, known as ST15, is allocated in the City of York Local Plan, adopted on 27 February 2025. Policy SS13 sets 18 principles the scheme has to meet. The ones residents are most likely to ask about:
- Homes and timing: about 3,339 homes, of which the plan expects 560 by 2032/33. The plan does not expect the site to be fully built until after 2040.
- Schools: an on-site nursery and primary school. A secondary school on land set aside for it only if the need is shown; otherwise the developer pays towards places elsewhere.
- A local centre: shops, health, leisure and community facilities, provided “early in the scheme’s phasing”.
- Main access from the A64: the primary access is a new junction on the A64, with a second access from Elvington Lane.
- Elvington Lane has a ceiling. The plan says modelling suggests Elvington Lane can take about 1,000 homes, roughly 30% of the total, and only with a new link road to Hull Road and work south of the Grimston Bar junction.
- No cars into Heslington: walking and cycling routes along Common Lane, Long Lane and Langwith Stray, with no vehicle access from the new village into Heslington village.
- Buses: frequent services through the site to the city centre and the University of York, with a target of at least 15% of trips by public transport.
- Wildlife: a new nature area next to Heslington Tillmire SSSI, with a buffer of at least 400 metres, and at least 10% biodiversity net gain. The mitigation has to be in place before any building starts, managed for at least 30 years.
The plan describes the site as a free-standing settlement covering 159 hectares. It also says a joined-up approach is needed with two neighbouring allocations: the University of York expansion (ST27) and the Elvington Airfield Business Park (ST26).
The arguments it has already been through
The allocation went through five phases of public hearings between 2019 and 2024. At the third phase of hearings, on this site, Fulford Parish Council argued that more than a third of ST15 lies within the Elvington Airfield Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (hearing statement). Heslington Parish Council said there was no detailed mitigation plan for the wildlife sites on and next to the airfield (hearing statement). The inspectors found the allocation sound, and the plan was adopted with it in.
Before this consultation, the partnership held two rounds of workshops: place-based indicator sessions early in 2026, and Enquiry by Design workshops in September, which it says shaped the emerging masterplan (project timeline).
What it means for you
- If you live in Elvington, Heslington, Dunnington or along the A64: the layout, the road access and where the schools and centre would go are now on the consultation page.
- Comments are open until 30 November, online or by post.
- Check it against the policy. The bullet list above is what the council can hold the developers to. If the masterplan leans on Elvington Lane, or delays the school or the shops, that is the point to raise.
- This is not the planning application. Comments now go to the developers. The formal consultation by the council comes after the outline application, which the partnership expects to submit in December.
The council is also preparing a new Local Plan to 2045. Its call for sites is open until 18 December; our Local Plan 2045 story has the details. Another new settlement, of 3,500 homes, is proposed near Escrick, south of York in North Yorkshire: see our Heronby story. Every live York scheme is on our planning news page.
Sources
- Langwith Village: project website, project timeline and engagement process
- City of York Local Plan, adopted 27 February 2025, Policy SS13 and paragraphs 3.67 to 3.73
- Consultation dates as announced by the partnership and reported by the Yorkshire Post and Building, 14 October 2026
Have your say