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23
Apr
High Court battle over Harrogate Station Gateway to commence
A High Court hearing into the £12.6 million Harrogate Station Gateway scheme is set to open tomorrow.
The project would see the biggest transformation of Harrogate town centre this century, particularly around Station Parade and Station Square.
However, the Get Away campaign group has challenged North Yorkshire Council over the scheme and taken the matter to the High Court amid concern that the authority failed to consider the wider impacts of the multi-million pound project.
A two-day hearing into the case will open at Leeds Combined Courts Centre tomorrow (April 24).
Deputy High Court Judge Mark Ockelton will oversee proceedings.
The hearing comes as campaigners and the council have been locked in a legal dispute over the gateway scheme since January.
Campaigners claim the council’s failure to consider the wider impacts of the proposal and to consult fully with the public have rendered the scheme’s Traffic Regulation Orders illegal.
Steven Baines on lower Station Parade.
Steven Baines, property developer who leads the Get Away campaign group, which includes freeholders, tenants and high street retailers, told the Stray Ferret previously that the scheme had been pushed through “without adequate consultation”.
He said:
Not only is there anger from the Harrogate business and trade community that this is the wrong scheme for the town but there is outrage at the way it was pushed through without adequate consultation.
This is simply not good enough and this is why we want the whole matter to be out in the open and heard by the High Court so we can get to the bottom of what has gone on here.
Cllr Keane Duncan, executive member for highways at the council, has described the claims as “weak” and pledged that the authority would fight it “strongly and as robustly as we can”.
Cllr Keane Duncan
In February, Cllr Duncan told a full council meeting that the legal challenge will not halt construction on some elements of the scheme outside the traffic regulation orders, such as improvements to One Arch.
He added:
It’s important to be clear, the purpose of this legal challenge is really simple: to block the project.
We are fighting this challenge as strongly and as robustly as we can. We have engaged top legal counsel. We are preparing to fight the case in the High Court.
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