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31
Jul
Council orders Harrogate car wash to cease trading after planning appeal dismissed
A Harrogate car wash has been ordered to cease trading after a planning inspector dismissed an appeal to operate the site.
Adnan Rusool and Mohammed Khader, owners of Skipton Road Car Wash, lodged an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate after North Yorkshire Council rejected plans to convert the former Jewson builder’s merchant site into a car wash and valeting station in April.
Plans to operate the car wash at the site were originally put forward in December 2023 but withdrawn the following March.
The car wash continued to operate despite no additional plans being put forward, which prompted the council to launch an enforcement investigation in October 2024.
However, enforcement action was quickly suspended after the owners submitted fresh plans the following month.
The Stray Ferret revealed on Tuesday (July 29) a planning inspector dismissed the appeal and raised concerns over noise generation at the site and the impact this could have on nearby residents.
We contacted North Yorkshire Council following the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to ask if further enforcement action would be taken should the car wash continue to operate without relevant planning consent.
Nic Harne, the authority’s corporate director for community development, told the Stray Ferret the car wash has been told to stop trading.
He said:
We take planning breaches very seriously and will fully investigate any reports we receive.
The decision taken by the Planning Inspector to dismiss this appeal should act as a deterrent to anyone who fails to have proper planning permissions in place.
The owner and operator of Skipton Road Car Wash have been contacted. Given that there is no planning permission, they have been told to stop trading or we will have no option but to go ahead with formal enforcement action.
Skipton Road Car Wash operating on November 5 last year.
This is the latest twist in a long-running saga at the site, which the Stray Ferret has covered extensively.
We visited Skipton Road Car Wash last November after the council revealed enforcement procedures were underway in late October.
A letter, seen by the Stray Ferret at the time, said an investigation into a potential breach of planning control at the site had been carried out and the owners were advised to cease operating until planning permission had been sought and granted.
However, it appeared to be business as usual at the car wash, which remained open despite the council’s instructions, when we visited on November 5, 2024.
We also called several people whose numbers had been listed in connection with the site at the time, all of whom denied having any knowledge of the operation.
One man, whose phone number had been advertised at the site, told us he knew nothing about the car wash and had “recently bought this number on eBay” when we asked why it was associated with the operation.
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