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03
Sept
Harrogate car wash could face legal action
The council has pledged to take further action against an unauthorised Harrogate car wash if it continues to ignore enforcement action.
North Yorkshire Council ordered Skipton Road Car Wash to cease trading last month after a planning inspector dismissed an appeal to operate at the site.
Adnan Rusool and Mohammed Khader, listed as the applicants behind the car wash, lodged the appeal to the Planning Inspectorate after the council rejected plans to convert the former Jewson builder's merchant site into a car wash in April.
Nic Harne, the council’s director for community development, subsequently told the Stray Ferret the owner and operator of the car wash had been ordered to stop trading and, if they didn’t, the authority would have “no option but to go ahead with formal enforcement action”.
The car wash has continued to operate, which prompted the Stray Ferret to ask the council for an update.
Mr Harne said yesterday (September 2):
We take planning breaches very seriously and fully investigate any reports we receive.
We are aware that the Skipton Road Car Wash continues to trade, and as a result, enforcement action is being taken via the serving of an enforcement notice.
Should this notice not be complied with, further action will be taken which would include court proceedings.
Skipton Road Car Wash on September 2, 2025.
Plans to convert the site into a car wash were put forward in December 2023 but withdrawn the following March.
However, the car wash continued to operate despite no additional proposals being put forward, which led the council to launch an enforcement investigation in October 2024.
The enforcement action was suspended after the owners submitted a fresh planning application the following month, but the application was rejected and the appeal dismissed.
The Stray Ferret visited the car wash twice last month after the planning appeal was dismissed – August 3 and August 5 – and it appeared to be business as usual on both occasions.
When we went to the site yesterday afternoon, the gates at Skipton Road Car Wash were open but there were no discernible signs of operation (pictured above).
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