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04
Dec
Campaigners plan fresh legal action over Harrogate Station Gateway decision
Campaigners are preparing to launch fresh legal action over North Yorkshire Council’s decision to press ahead with the £14.6 million Harrogate’s Station Gateway plan.
The Get Away group said its legal advisers, Walton & Co, had sent a pre-action protocol letter to the council over its decision in November to enter into a contract with NY Highways for the project.
The council also sought to enter into agreements with West Yorkshire Combined Authority and York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority to release funding for the scheme.
Senior North Yorkshire councillors have given the go-ahead for work to begin in the New Year.
However, campaigners argue that the move was unlawful and say they are preparing to bring a judicial review against the council’s decision.
Steven Baines, spokesperson for the Get Away group, said:
North Yorkshire Council is trying to steamroller this scheme through on the basis of a business case that is out of date, over-hyped and riddled with risk. Our legal team is clear. The decision to press ahead is not just bad judgment, it is very likely unlawful.”
We are not prepared to stand by while millions of pounds of public money is gambled on a project that will damage Harrogate town centre, increase congestion and ignore serious safety, environmental and heritage concerns.
In its letter, the campaign group said the decision in November is unlawful on the following grounds:
- failure to carry out a lawful and adequate public consultation on the revised scheme;
- pressing ahead in the face of ongoing Court of Appeal proceedings against Traffic Regulation Orders 1–4, and despite the council’s own business case recording a 75% risk of a successful legal challenge;
- relying on a flawed business case which significantly overstates benefits to bus use, cycling, walking, rail patronage and air quality.
- lack of information forthcoming on traffic impacts, greenhouse gas emissions, heritage, safety and effects on protected species;
- irrational reliance on a seven-year-old parking study which is at odds with the council’s own 2025 Parking Principles.
The Conservative-run council's ruling executive agreed to press ahead with the scheme on November 18.
At the time, senior councillors spoke of their frustration that “a few people who don’t like something” had been able to hold up the project.
The scheme will see the redevelopment of One Arch and Station Square, improved traffic signals, a bus lane, a southbound cycle lane on Station Parade, new paving for pedestrians and cycle parking at Harrogate Railway Station.
In a report before senior councillors, Alex Richards, Transforming Cities Fund programme manager at the council, said it was the council’s position that it was “entitled to rely on the High Court’s decision as a valid basis for moving forward”.
In November, the Court of Appeal granted permission for the Get Away campaign group to review a judge’s decision to dismiss their original legal challenge.
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