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14
Sept 2022
Government rejects Harrogate working men's club flats plan
The government has rejected plans to convert a former Harrogate working men’s club into flats.
The National Reserve Club, on East Parade, formally closed in July 2021 following a unanimous resolution by members. It was also known as ‘The Nash’.
The organisation had been registered as a working men’s club since July 11, 1913, when it was known as the Harrogate Battalion National Reserve of the West Riding of York Club.
ID Planning, which submitted a plan to convert the club into flats on behalf of Ashleigh and Caroline Wells, took Harrogate Borough Council to appeal after it refused its conversion plan in May this year.
The council said there was insufficient evidence that the building could no longer be used as a community facility.
But the developer said in a statement to the government that the reasons for rejection were “unfounded”.
It said:
Read more:
- Bilton Working Men’s Club decides on new name
- Malcolm Neesam History: Harrogate’s thriving working men’s clubs
- Bid to convert Harrogate working men’s club into flats refused
Robert Walker, a government planning inspector, said in a decision notice that he could not conclude that continued use of the site as a community facility would cause “planning problems”.
He said:
Mr Walker added that there had not been “sufficient evidence provided to justify the permanent loss of the existing community facility”.
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